THE LIFE 

OF THE 

LORD JESUS 



MRS.U)UiSE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap, Copyright No. 

Shelf^.|i^.i& 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Life of the Lord Jesus 



BY / 

MRS. LOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON 



AN AID TO THE STUDY 



THE GOSPEL HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST 




THE BIBLE STUDY PUBLISHING CO. 

21 Bromfield Street, 

BOSTON, MASS. 



+^ 






Copyright, 1895, 
by The Bible Study Publishing Compant 



The Library 

OF CoNni.i:sS 



WASHINGTON 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



One of the fundamental principles of The Bible Study Union is 
that Sunday-school lesson helps should never be of such a character 
as to take the place of the personal study of the Bible itself in the 
preparation of the lesson. The tendency of helps whicU do this is 
to drive the Bible out of the Sunday-school, and to make the opinions 
of men about the Bible, rather than the Bible itself, the basis of 
instruction. One evil result of such helps appears in the practical 
disuse of the Bible in many Sunday-school classes at the present 
time. For use in the Sunday-school, the Bible without note or com- 
ment is much better than the best possible notes and comments with- 
out the Bible. 

It is equally true, as stated by the author of The Bible Study 
Union Lessons in The Andover Eeview for October, 1892, that " we 
need all the help we can get in studying the Bible ; we cannot have 
too much of it, provided it is really help ; " that is, if it is of such a 
character that it helps to a better undergtanding of the sacred text, 
but does not take the place of that text as the basis of study. Much 
such help can be gathered from historical and geographical works, 
from commentaries on the gospels, and from the various lives of 
Christ, of which we now have such rich abundance. The Manual, 
published in connection with The Bible Study Union Lessons, is 
designed to afford a large measure of such help. 

It is because the accompanying Life of the Lord Jesus, by Mrs. 
Houghton, is of this character that we gladly republish it from the 
columns of The Evangelist as revised, and to a large extent 
rewritten, by herself, for use in connection with the lessons on The 
Gospel History of Jesus Christ. Each chapter takes up the Scrip- 
ture material of one lesson and throws much light on its meaning, 
as well as upon its circumstances and surroundings. It cannot fail 

Hi 



iv Publisher^ s Preface, 

to be very useful to any who wish for a better understanding of the 
life of the Lord Jesus, and especially to those who study His life in 
the lessons of The Bible Study Union. 

We wish particularly to call attention to Mrs. Houghton's remark, 
in the author's preface, that she alone is responsible for the state- 
ment and teachings of this volume. We do this in justice both to 
the editors of The Bible Study Union Lessons, and to the Lesson 
Committee of The Bible Study Union. 

THE BIBLE STUDY PUBLISHING CO. 

Boston, November, 1895. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The following studies were originally prepared in connection with 
the Blakeslee Lessons of The Bible Study Union, for the Sunday- 
school department of The Evangelist. They have been carefully 
revised and in great part rewritten for publication in their present 
form, in the hope that they may prove useful to all who wish to 
attain a connected and comprehensive view of the life of our Lord, 
and especially to teachers or Bible-class pupils who follow the 
lessons of the Gospel History Series. While acknowledging my 
obligation to the editors of the Blakeslee Lessons, for the plan and 
method by which they have thrown such light upon the study of 
the Bible, I must myself bear all responsibility for the statements 
and teachings of these chapters. It is proper to add that in prepar- 
ing these papers I have made free use of my Life of Christ in Pic- 
ture and Story (American Tract Society), and of my Studies in St. 
John's Gospel, published in The Evangelist in connection with the 
International Lessons of 1891. 

My brightest hope in sending these studies forth is that those who 
use them may find in them something of the revelation of the beauty 
of the Lord that has come to me in preparing them. 

L. S. H. 
New York, November, 1895. 



Contents. 



PAGE 

Publisher's Preface iii 

Author's Preface . v 

CHAPTER I, — Introductory 3 

Lesson i.* 

CHAPTER II. — The Word Made Flesh 7 

Lesson 2. 

CHAPTER III, — The Childhood and Youth of Jesus . . . ii 

Lesson 3. 

CHAPTER IV. — John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ 17 

Lesson 4. 

CHAPTER V. — Jesus Entering on His Ministry 21 

Lesson 5. 

CHAPTER VI. — The Beginnings of Faith in Jesus .... 26 

Lesson 6. 

CHAPTER VII. — The Beginning of Christ's Work in Jerusalem 29 

Lesson 7. 

CHAPTER VIII. — Jesus in Judea and Samaria 32 

Lesson 8. 

CHAPTER IX. — The Beginning of Christ's Work in Galilee 37 

Lesson 10. 

CHAPTER X. — The Call of the Four, and the First Preach- 
ing Tour 42 

Lesson 11. 

CHAPTER XI. — The Scribes and Pharisees Finding Fault 

with Jesus 47 

Lesson 12. 

CHAPTER XII. — The Sabbath Question : First Plots to Kill 

Jesus 52 

Lesson 13. 

CHAPTER XIII. — The Choosing of the Twelve 57 

Lesson 14, 

CHAPTER XIV. — The Sermon on the Mount 62 

Lesson 15, 

CHAPTER XV. — The Second Preaching Tour 67 

Lesson i6. 

CHAPTER XVI. — A Day of Teaching by the Sea of Galilee 72 

Lesson 17. 

CHAPTER XVII. — A Day of Miracles by the Sea of Galilee 77 

Lesson 18. 

CHAPTER XVIII. — The Third Preaching Tour 82 

Lesson 19. 

CHAPTER XIX. —The Crisis at Capernaum 87 

Lesson 20. 

CHAPTER XX. — The Withdrawal into Northern Galilee . 93 

Lesson 22. 

CHAPTER XXI. — The Transfiguration, and the Return to 

Capernaum 98 

Lesson 23. 

CHAPTER XXII. — An Autumn Visit to Jerusalem .... 102 

Lesson 24. 
* The lesson numbers under ,the chapter titles refer to The Bible Study Union 
Lessons on The Gospel History of Jesus Christ. 

vii 



VIU CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XXIII. — Christ's Final Departure from Galilee, 

AND the Mission of the Seventy . .107 

Lesson 25. 

CHAPTER XXIV. — A Winter Visit to Jerusalem 112 

Lesson 26. 

CHAPTER XXV. — Discourses on Prayer and against the 

Pharisees 116 

Lesson 27. 

CHAPTER XXVI. — The Sabbath Question, and the Parable 

OF THE Great Supper 121 

Lesson 28. 

CHAPTER XXVIL — Three Parables of Grace and Two of 

Warning 126 

Lesson 29. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. — The Raising of Lazarus, and the With- 
drawal to Ephraim 132 

Lesson 30. 

CHAPTER XXIX. — Jesus Beginning His Last Journey to 

Jerusalem 137 

Lesson 31. 

CHAPTER XXX. —Teachings by the Way: Worldly , and 

Spiritual Wealth and Greatness . .141 

Lesson 32. 

CHAPTER XXXI. — From Jericho to Bethany : The Close of 

the Last Journey to Jerusalem . .146 

Lesson 33, 

CHAPTER XXXII. — The Triumphal Entry, and the Second 

Cleansing of the Temple 152 

Lesson 35. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. — Christ's Authority Challenged . . .157 

Lesson 36. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. — Jesus' Last Conflict with the Scribes 

and Pharisees 161 

Lesson 37. 

CHAPTER XXXV. — The Close of Christ's Public Ministry 166 

Lesson 38. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. — Jesus and the Four on the Mount of 

Olives 170 

Lesson 39. 

CHAPTER XXXVIL — The Last Supper . . . 174 

Lesson 40. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. — Our Lord's Farewell Discourses . .179 

Lesson 41. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. —Jesus in Gethsemane 185 

Lesson 42. 

CHAPTER XL. — The Trial of Jesus 190 

Lesson 43. 

CHAPTER XLL — The Crucifixion and Burial 196 

Lesson 44. 

CHAPTER XLIL— The Resurrection Morning 200 

Lesson 45. 

CHAPTER XLIII. — The Resurrection Evening, and the 

Doubting Thomas 205 

Lesson 46. 

CHAPTER XLIV. — The Galilean Appearances, and the As- 
cension 209 

Lesson 47. 



The Life of the Lord Jesus. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is with peculiar joy that the thoughtful teacher takes up 
with his pupils the Life of the Lord Jesus. This is the 
centre of all our Bible study ; it should also be its beginning ; 
it will surely be its end. All other parts of the Bible, whether 
written before or after the incarnation, find their chief value in 
their relation to that life, which in itself was the perfect revela- 
tion of Grod. 

Far more of the Old Testament is Messianic prophecy than 
is usually perceived. The story of creation, with man formed 
in the image of God and quickened to life by his breath, is a 
prophecy of the true Son of man in whom is the Spirit of God, 
not by measure, but without limit. But here at the outset the 
prophetic history is interrupted by the free choice of man to 
sin. Adam chose to set up his own will against the will of 
God, and so sin came into the world, with all its terrible effects 
— separation from God, judgment and punishment. 

That the plans of God for the perfecting of the race in holi- 
ness and happiness might be realized, it now became necessary 
to break the power of sin — to bring the will of man into true 
harmony with God's will — and to exalt holiness. That this 
could be done only through the sacrifice of the Son of God 
shows how terrible is sin and how marvelous is the love of God 
to men. 

Even in the very hour of man's first sin, a promise of 
redemption from sin is given in the first spoken prophecy 
(Gen. 3:15). There is here no explicit promise of the one 
Redeemer ; the time for that had not come. The assurance to 

3 



4 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

Eve was that a long continued struggle of her seed against the 
power of evil should end in the ultimate triumph of good. 
With the call to Abram the family was selected through which 
this promised triumph should come. So the development of 
promise and prophecy went on ; the ideals of a holy land, of a 
holy nation, of the kingdom of G-od, of a conquering King, and 
of a suffering Servant, given in the history of the chosen people, 
properly belong to Messianic prophecy. That the Redeemer is 
actually the Son of God in a different way from that in which 
all mankind are his sons is the latest development of prophecy, 
dimly prefigured in passages like Psalm 2 and Isaiah 9:6; but 
not at all recognized until the very last times, when, as the 
author of the epistle to the Hebrews says (1:1), God having 
spoken to man in many ways by prophets now spoke by a Son. 
From very early times there had been a historic preparation 
for his coming. First in the choice of Abraham to be the 
founder of a nation peculiarly fitted by natural characteristics — 
tenacity, vigor, a blending of the idealistic and the practical, a 
genius for religion — to receive and cherish the gradual revela- 
tion, to endure a long course of discipline, including trans- 
plantation, slavery, war, prosperity and adversity, without 
losing either racial identity or that hope of the Messiah which 
was its distinguishing characteristic. Cyrus had broken up 
the corrupt, effeminate, luxurious empires of the East and 
made way for the sterner and purer civilization of the West. 
The Greek dominion under Alexander and his successors had 
given a perfect language to the whole civilized world ; and 
G-reek philosophy had given a blow to the corruption and 
superstition of ancient polytheism, and " had taught the world 
to think." Then, at last, had come the Roman empire, uniting 
the civilized world, giving, with its perfect military system, 
high sense of justice and stern ideal of obedience, one law and 
one system of communication and of protection throughout its 
wide domain, as the Greeks had given it one language. Then, 
historically, the fullness of the time had come. 



Introductory. 6 

It had come intellectually. The grossness of polytheism 
had been succeeded by the very highest and purest philosophical 
system — that of Plato — which, apart from revelation, it is 
perhaps possible for the mind of man to evolve. And yet the 
world was none the better for it, but, in fact, in many impor- 
tant points it was worse. Philosophy was insufficient to meet 
the highest needs of thinking men, and too high to meet the 
wants of the ignorant. The worship of false gods by the 
people was therefore encouraged by the learned and powerful, 
who themselves were atheists, and the natural result was a state 
of sensuality, cruelty, and selfishness such as had never before 
been known. The purer spirits turned to Judaism ; there were 
thousands of proselytes in every country and in every rank of 
society ; but Judaism, though attractive for its high personal 
morality, and especially for its Messianic hope, was repellent 
to the more high-minded Gentiles by reason of the hypocrisy 
and rapacity of Jews in high station. Judaism itself needed 
reforming ; all other religions and philosophies were vain ; the 
world was now ripe for Christianity ; the fullness of the time 
had come. 

The study of the life of Christ, to which this brief historical 
review has brought us, is to be pursued by means of the four 
gospels. Two of these are attributed to apostles, — Matthew 
and John, — and two to companions and friends of apostles, — 
Mark and Luke, The two latter, with Matthew, cover practi- 
cally the same ground and are called the synoptic gospels. 
Which of the four was first written has not yet been decided ; 
most scholars are of the opinion that there was an earlier 
account underlying the synoptics ; but when it was written, 
whether it was written at all or circulated orally, are questions 
to which no decisive answer has been given. 

Matthew, or Levi, was a tax collector, a class greatly despised 
by the Jews. He was one of the earliest to be called by Jesus 
to leave his occupation and attach himself entirely to him. 
He evidently wrote for Jews ; to show that Jesus of Nazareth 



6 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

is the fulfillment of prophecy ; and that the kingdom of God 
is to be founded on his redemptive work. His gospel is the 
gospel of Christ's Galilean discourses. 

Mark was a friend and companion of the apostles Peter and 
Paul. One of the earliest Christian writers relates that he 
wrote what Peter fold him of the sayings of Christ, and it is 
strikingly apparent that the scope of Mark's gospel is precisely 
that of Peter's preaching (Acts 1 : 22 ; 10 : 37-42). He wrote 
for Gentile Christians, and he therefore gives no place to the 
genealogy of Jesus or to his earlier years. His gospel is 
especially the gospel of our Lord's personality, telling more of 
what he did than of what he taught. His style is exceedingly 
picturesque, direct and rapid ; his is the realistic gospel. 

Luke was a Gentile physician, an accomplished writer, the 
friend and companion of St. Paul. He wrote for all Gentiles, 
whether Christians or not, though he dedicated his gospel to a 
personal friend. It was his purpose to collect all the facts of 
Christ's life which could be authenticated. He therefore begins 
at the very beginning, with the birth of John the Baptist, and 
closes with the ascension. This is the gospel of the prayers 
and parables of Jesus ; the poetic gospel, containing songs and 
prophecies ; the gospel of women, of children, of the afflicted 
in body and mind ; in fact its scope is far wider than that of 
either of the other synoptics. 

John was the beloved disciple: the one, surely, who knew 
our Lord better than any of his other disciples. He was, 
therefore, more deeply concerned than any of the others to 
make known Christ's divinity. Though written with immediate 
reference to the churches in Asia Minor, his gospel was, in 
fact, written for all men in all time. It is the gospel of the 
divinity of Jesus, and of eternal life. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WORD MADE FLESH. 

, John 1 : 1-18 ; Luke 1 : 26-38 ; 2 : 1-20. 

THE fullness of the time had come ; the Messiah had 
appeared. The history of his life on earth and of the 
establishment of his kingdom was to be written, and the 
apostle John, in the prologue of his gospel, begins at the true 
beginning of this histor}^ telling what manner of being he was. 

The Jews had entirely misapprehended the true character of 
him whom they eagerly anticipated. Groaning under the 
oppressions of foreign conquerors, and painfully sighing for 
freedom, they had lost sight of those prophecies and those pro- 
phetic elements of their own history which showed God's 
anointed as anointed Priest and enlightening Prophet and 
suffering Servant, and dwelt only upon those which prefigured 
him as Conqueror and King. Thus they came more and more 
to overlook the moral need of a Saviour from sin, although 
everything in their law and ritual pointed to this ; and more 
and more ardently to long for a Saviour from oppression and 
from political bondage. Although John's gospel was not writ- 
ten for Jews, it was written for men whose 'religious notions 
were gained from Jews. The cradle of every Gentile church 
was the synagogue. 

John therefore undertakes to correct Jewish misconceptions 
by showing the true nature of God's anointed. He was no 
mere man, but the Word, the utterance or self-revelation of 
God. He had eternally existed with God, in the beginning, 
before the foundations of the earth were laid. As the Word, 
be had been the agent of creation, and so through him all 
nature was a revelation of God. Yet the Word was not simply 

7 



8 Tlie Life of the Lord Jesus. 

a power or attribute of God, but a distinct personality ; not it, 
but he was the life, the sustaining energy of the universe, and 
the light, the moral power of humanity. From the entrance of 
sin into the world, he, as a divine person, had been continually 
fulfilling the prophecy then uttered by God (Gen. 3:18), the 
light shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehending 
(getting possession of) it not. 

Though this light had been continually coming into the world, 
the world had not accepted him ; yet here and there had 
been those who had received him in prophetic faith, and had 
entered into that true relation with God which was Adam's in 
the day of his creation — a relation not physical, but spiritual ; 
not of the flesh, nor of human will, but the inbreathing of the 
life of God. 

Then, at last, the Word became flesh. Not a mere incarna- 
tion or emanation, such as we read of in Hindoo or Egyptian 
mythology ; the Word took upon him a true humanity, the 
humanity that God placed in Eden. He became flesh, but not 
sinful flesh. Here is the sacred key to the human history of 
our Lord, the one to which we must hold fast, if we would 
enter into the meaning, not of his external history, but of his ' 
personal life. Jesus was the very glory of humanity, a true 
Son of man, and no man who sins is that. His perfection was 
not that of which the Greeks dreamed, physical beauty, but 
moral and spiritual, the beauty of holiness. Full of grace and 
truth, he manifested forth the glory of God, as the Shekinah 
in the wilderness tabernacle had done. , 

Of his coming God had sent one to bear witness, a man 
whose name was John. Some had taken him to be the Mes- 
siah ; but the light that was in him was only as that of a lamp, 
not of one who had light in himself. He bore the distinct wit- 
ness that Jesus, the Christ, was the Son of God. In this human 
Jesus, this divine Word, this anointed One, was revealed the 
grace and truth of God ; truths for which the law given by 
Moses was a preparation. Through him was communicated to 



The Word Made Flesh. 9 

men the divine fullness; through him, the only begotten Son of 
God, it was authentically declared that God is our Father. 

The evangelist Luke begins at the earliest period of Christ's 
human history the story of this wondrous life of the eternal 
Word, who left the glory of heaven for a life of humiliation on 
earth to manifest God and restore men to their true relations to 
him. The angel Gabriel announced to Mary, a peasant maiden 
of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, that she was 
to be the mother of the Son of the Most High, the infant Mes- 
siah. We must observe that, both in this announcement and 
in that made to Zacharias (Luke 1 : 11-20), six months before, 
^that he was to be the father of the forerunner of the Messiah, 
the angel Gabriel gives a description which answers literally to 
the expectation of the devout Jews of that and former times, 
but does not correspond in any literal way with the actual life 
of Jesus. This is an example of the way in which God reveals 
truth, and we should never forget it in our study of the Bible. 
He knows just how far the human mind has advanced, and how 
much of truth it can take in, and he never bewilders nor distracts 
the mind from the essential by revealing things that it cannot 
receive. It would have been impossible for Mary to under- 
stand the spiritual meaning of this prophecy if it had been put 
into plain language ; and yet the prophecy was entirely true ; it 
covered a field much larger than that of Mary's vision, yet we 
who have the light of the knowledge of Jesus' earthly life can 
see that spiritually though not historically it was described in 
these prophetic words. 

The beautiful submission of Mary, in circumstances more 
trying to faith and obedience than any others we can possibly 
conceive of, shows her deeply religious character and her emi- 
nent spiritual fitness to become the mother of the Messiah. 
As far as she could foresee, it must bring upon her misappre- 
hension and even contumely. But she did not make this an 
objection. She was, with no reservation, the handmaid of the 
Lord, to whom his word was law. Matthew (1 : 18-25) tells 



10 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

how God protected her, and taught her betrothed husband 
in a dream the singular honor bestowed upon her ; whereupon 
that just man took her at once under the shelter of his own 
name, and kept in his heart the revelation he had received. 

The home of Joseph and Mary was Nazareth, an obscure 
village in Gralilee ; but prophecy had taught that the Messiah 
should be born in Bethlehem, the ancestral city of the kings 
of David's line. The natural course of history, being all in 
the power of Grod, wrought for the fulfillment of this prophecy. 
A decree of the emperor Augustus that all his subjects should 
be enrolled — with a view, no doubt, to one of those census 
lists which he was fond of making — took effect in Palestine 
just at this time, and according to Jewish custom each man 
was enrolled, not in the place of his abode, but in the ancestral 
seat of his family. Joseph, being of the house and lineage of 
David, must repair to Bethlehem, and under the circumstances 
he would naturally take with him his betrothed wife, Mary. 
There, then, the promised Child was born. 

Knowing what we do of the eternal histor}^ of this Child, we 
should not be surprised at what took place at his birth, — the 
announcement by angels to certain devout men that the Christ 
was born, and the manifestation to earth of the joy in heaven 
at this marvelous event, which more than any other in human 
history manifested the glory of God and promised peace to 
earth. No act of which the human mind can conceive so 
reveals the character of God, his unspeakable love and justice 
and holiness and forgiveness, as the coming to earth of the 
Son of God and his taking on human flesh. Nothing else of 
which we could possibly conceive could be such a guarantee of 
peace on earth, as the life on earth of One who came from 
heaven to be himself our peace in making man able and willing 
to be at one with God. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF JESUS. 

Luke 2 : 22-39 ; Matt. 2 : 1-23 ; Luke 2 : 40-52. 

THE story of the presentation of the Child Jesus in the 
temple is an important witness to the date of Luke's gos- 
pel. It gives a very precise picture of the customs of the Jews 
during the period that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem 
(a.d. 70), customs which at that time forever passed away. 
Many trifling details are given of the kind which easily slip 
away from memory and can never afterwards be recalled, and 
this chapter could not have been written much later than 
that date. 

Being carried to the temple at the age of six weeks to be 
redeemed by an offering from the duty of personal service, as 
the law of Moses required, the little Child Jesus was met by 
an aged man and woman, Simeon and Anna, whose ardent 
piety kept them always in or near the temple. They belonged 
to the group of his own^ who in all ages had been receiving 
him by faith (see Chapter II), the spiritually-minded class 
to which Joseph and Mary themselves belonged, most of whom, 
however, were probably gathered in Jerusalem at this time, in 
anticipation of the Messiah's coming. To Simeon had actually 
come a revelation, through the Holy Spirit, that he should not 
die until he had seen the Messiah. In the course of Simeon's 
long life there had been many false Messiahs ; the general 
expectancy had lent itself to such impostors (comp. Acts 5 : 
36, 37) ; but he was resting in the promise that he should live 
until he had seen the Lord's anointed. He had been enabled 

to accept those prophecies which showed that the benefit of the 

11 



12 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Messiah's reign would not be confined to the Jews ; that he 
was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles ; though it is not 
probable that he saw that it was through this large diffusion of 
the Messiah's beneficent influence that the glory of Israel would 
be brought about. The aged Anna had also the prophetic 
endowment, but not as Simeon had it. She did not speak in 
the temple, but privately among the spiritually-enlightened few 
who, understanding that the Messiah's kingdom must be one of 
holiness and purity, and believing, as all Jews did, that the 
Holy Land was to be its centre, looked for the redemption, 
that is, the purification, of Jerusalem, as the first step toward 
its establishment. 

From this Jerusalem visit, Joseph and Mary, with the infant 
Jesus, no doubt returned to Bethlehem, which they would deem 
the proper place in which to bring up him who according to 
prophecy should come out of that town. Here they sooner or 
later received a visit from three wise men from the East, who 
had seen a heavenly sign that had led them to believe that the 
King, the expectation of whose advent was widely spread, had 
been born. 

The inquiries by which the Magi learned in Jerusalem of the 
birthplace of this little Child set all the capital in a ferment. 
Herod the Idumsean, the reigning king, was both hated and 
feared, as a ferocious and bloodthirsty tyrant of an alien 
and despised race. Even now, when, after thirty years of 
a reign stained by unnumbered crimes, he was dying of an 
incurable disease, his subjects knew that he would stop at no 
atrocity to put down a pretender to the throne. On the other 
hand, Herod knew that his subjects were only waiting a favor- 
able opportunity for insurrection. In fact, in the year 4 b.c, 
or shortly after the birth of our Lord, there arose an insurrec- 
tion, led by two rabbis, not, indeed, with intent to depose 
Herod, but to tear down from the temple gates the golden 
eagles of Rome, w^hich, in violation of the second command- 
ment as they understood it, Herod had affixed there. The 



The Childhood and Youth of Jesus. 13 

tumult had been quelled aud the leaders burned alive ; but to 
Herod the news that a Child supposed to be the Messiah had 
been born would sound like the signal of a new insurrection, 
with such a rallying cry as would render it invincible. 

He at once took measures to protect himself by ordering the 
murder of all the children of Bethlehem under two years old. 
But the plans of G-od are not so thwarted. Joseph, divinely 
warned, fled by night with Mary and the little Child to Egypt, 
then a peculiarly safe refuge for such Jews as were under 
Herod's displeasure. Their exile was a short one, for in the 
same year Herod died, and Joseph, in a dream, was divinely 
bidden to return to Palestine. He would naturally have gone 
again to Bethlehem, but he found that Judea was still not a 
safe place for the Child Jesus. Archelaus, who had succeeded 
his father, Herod, was notoriously violent and tyrannical to a 
degree not equaled by any other of Herod's sons. Imme- 
diately on his proclamation as heir to the throne, a rebellion 
arose which he stamped out with much bloodshed. Judea in 
such a tumult could not be a suitable abiding place, and Joseph 
and Mary returned to the safe seclusion of their early home, 
Nazareth. 

A single verse (Luke 2 : 40) sums up all that the evangelists 
directly tell us of Jesus' childhood, but there are a few glimpses 
of it elsewhere in the New Testament, and history shows us the 
conditions under which he lived. The inspired writers give us 
no picture of him as a monstrosity of perfection or of power. 
Emptied of all heavenly glory (Phil. 2 : 6-8) , he was a 
true child, made in all things like unto his brethren (Heb. 2 : 
17) , the boys and girls that are growing up in our homes to-day. 
Like them he learned obedience through the things that he 
suffered (Heb. 5:8), being only unlike them in this, — that 
none of the things that he suffered were punishment. Always 
obeying his parents, it was as painful for him as it is for any 
child to give up his play to perform some homely task, to bear 
with the petulance and selfishness of younger children, to 



14 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

endure the pain of accident or privation ; the difference was 
that he loved to do right always, and was willing to suffer, if 
need were, in doing it. But the sufferings through which he was 
made perfect (Heb. 2 : 10) were not confined to the last three 
years of his life, any more than the temptations by which he 
became able to succor us (2 : 18) were confined to the forty 
days after the baptism. He could not be our Exemplar if he 
had not been in all points tempted like as we are ; nor could 
he have been our Saviour, if it could not have been added of 
him that he was yet without sin (Heb. 4 : 15). 

There probably was a school at Nazareth attached to the 
synagogue, for a few years later it was enacted that in every 
town schools should be established and children brought to 
them at six or seven years of age ; and schools must have been 
very general before such an enactment could have been made. 
But with or without schools, everj^ child was thoroughly taught 
the law, being able to repeat and generally to read it. "We 
take most pains of all with the instruction of children," says 
Josephus, adding that this is to the Jews " the most important 
affair of our whole life." Children, he says, can more easily 
repeat all the laws than their own name, learning them fi^om 
their first consciousness. 

Whether or not he went to the synagogue school there was 
one school from which the Boy Jesus learned much — that of 
nature. Nazareth is one of the most beautifully situated of all 
the villages of Palestine. Itself on a high plateau, it is sur- 
rounded on all sides by hills, " like a rose by its leaves," says 
one writer. There is one place on the hill where we may be 
very sure that the Boy Jesus often went, a place from which . 
the eye can range from snowy Hermon on the north to the 
broad plain of Esdraelon on the south, where Tabor and Car- 
mel can be seen, the Bay of Acre outspreading to the sunset, 
and the Sea of Galilee, gleaming like a sapphire in a deep 
hollow below the hills. Every foot of ground was classic with 
the history of God's chosen people ; from every point the echo 



The Childhood and Youth of Jesus. 15 

of psalm and prophecy and prayer must have fallen upon the 
ear of this Boy, whose heart and mind were full of the history 
of his people. There, as he lay upon the grass, withdrawn 
from the plays of his comrades, he would ponder on the lilies 
of the field, arrayed as Solomon never was ; the grass which 
to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven ; would see the 
fox flashing by to his hole ; and hear the voice of the wind 
blowing where it listeth, and the twittering of sparrows, which 
are the heavenly Father's care. 

It seems probable that the Boy Jesus learned more than one 
language. Hebrew was no longer spoken in Palestine, but 
Aramaic, a branch of the Syriac, and only scholars learned to 
read Hebrew. Greek, however, was the language of culture 
and of society, and of necessity those engaged in trade or 
domestic service had a speaking knowledge of it, as such 
people in many parts of the continent of Europe speak several 
languages to-day. Our Lord and his disciples probably knew 
something of Greek ; they needed no interpreter with the 
Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7 : 26), or with the Greeks who 
desired to see Jesus at the feast (John 12 : 20-22). That he 
had a familiar acquaintance, not with the law only, but with all 
the Old Testament, is evident, and certain scholars have thought 
that they could find in his discourses tokens of acquaintance 
with other Jewish literature. 

How much did Jesus know in his childhood of his unique 
relation to God and to the Messianic hope ? The one incident 
of this period that is given us is our best guide to this answer 
— the story of his first Passover, when he was twelve years old. 
It must, from every point of view, have been an important 
experience. The seventy miles' journey on foot, "^ith an ever 
increasing caravan, as new companies joined it at successive 
stages ; the great multitude, chanting to the accompaniment of 
the flute the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) ; must have 
made a deep impression on the earnest Boy. And if, as we 
may conjecture, his mother, on some quiet evening of this 



16 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

journey, withdrew with her Son from the reposing company, and 
under the solemn light of the Passover full moon told him the 
marvelous story of his birth, the whole being of the wondrous 
Child must have thrilled with the consciousness of his peculiar 
relationship to God. No wonder that not even the strange 
sights of the Holy City could attract him from the terrace of 
the temple, where, during the feast days, the rabbis of the 
Sanhedrin sat, permitting any one to come to them, both to 
hear and to ask questions. The question which he put to his 
parents when, having missed him from the returning company 
they at last after three days found him there, says much as to 
what this experience had been to him. Wist ye not, he asks 
with grave surprise, have you not all along known that which 
would teach you, that it behooves me to be in my Father's house? 
Yet, if he now felt himself to be so truly the Child of God 
that the other parentage had become secondary in his heart, 
this is not to say that he held the earthly tie to be less dear or 
less sacred than before. The more he realized his divine Son- 
ship, the more precious to him would be the earthly sonship 
to which the will of God had made him subject. And the 
growing consciousness of his mission would make him not less, 
but more, ready to live obscurely for eighteen years longer, 
toiling for his livelihood (Mark 6:3), and perhaps (being the 
eldest son, and Joseph apparently dead) for that of his mother 
and her younger children. Every hour was an hour of prepara- 
tion for his great work ; every experience of his daily life con- 
tributed to his fitness for it, dwelling as he did in perpetual 
consciousness of God, and serenely content to abide the 
Father's time for the manifestation of his eternal purpose. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JOHN THE BAPTIST, THE FOREEUNNER OF CHRIST. 

Luke 1 : 5-25, 57-80 ; 3 : 1-17 ; Matt. 3 : 1-12 ; Mark 1 : 1-8. 

PROPHECY had given the Jews to expect, not the Messiah 
only (the messenger of the covenant, Mai. 3:1), but 
also a forerunner, God's messenger, who was to prepare the 
Messiah's way. Two forerunners, indeed, were expected (John 
1:21), Elijah (Mai. 4:5) and an unnamed prophet, some- 
times supposed to be Jeremiah (John 6 : 14 ; comp. Matt. 
16:14; Luke 9:19), whose coming is predicted, not in the 
Old Testament, but in one of the books of the Apocrypha, 
which, we must carefully observe, very powerfully influenced 
the Jews of this time. 

Six months before the announcement of the birth of Jesus 
(see Chapter II) , the birth of this forerunner was announced 
to a priest named Zacharias, who, with his aged wife the 
daughter of a priest, belonged to the saintly group, widely 
scattered, but yet a true spiritual community, to which Simeon 
and Anna, Joseph and Mary belonged, beautiful exponents of 
Old Testament religion, blameless in more than a ceremonial 
sense. 

To this aged priest, on the day when at last the lot gave to 
him the high honor of offering incense in the temple, appeared 
the angel Gabriel announcing that he was to become the father 
of a son who, in the vigor and strength of a great mission, 
should run before the spiritual chariot of the Messiah, as 
Elijah before that of Ahab (1 Kings 18: 46), preparing the 
people by contrition and obedience for the coming of the Lord. 

In due time the son was born and received the name John 
{Jehovah is gracious) , given him by the angel. On this occasion 

17 



18 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

the aged father broke forth into a song of praise, proph- 
esying salvation to Israel, and repeating the glorious prophecy 
of the angel that he was to be the forerunner of the Messiah, 
to prepare for his reception. The angel had said nothing of 
the remission of sins^ but the deep religious consciousness of 
Zacharias, quickened with prophetic illumination, showed him, 
as it showed his son in later years, that this was the true prep- 
aration for the Messiah's coming. 

" Strong in spirit" we should expect such a child as this to 
be. With the death of his parents, aged when he was born, 
knowing the prophecies concerniug himself, John followed the 
example of many spiritually-minded men of his time, and 
sought the deeper seclusion of the neighboring desert, until 
the day when the word of God should come to him to summon 
him to his work. 

John was thirty years old (probably a.d. 26) when he came 
forth from this retirement, and proceeded, preaching as he 
went (Matt. 3:1), toward the Jordan, by way of the steppe- 
like country at the southern extremity of the river, where 
it enters the Dead Sea. 

He had appeared suddenly, without a warning, like his pro- 
totype, Elijah (1 Kings 17:1); and in his dress, the rough 
garment of camel's hair worn by the ancient prophets (2 Kings 
1:8; Zech. 13 : 4, comp. Matt. 11 : 8), and his severely simple 
food, he recalled Elijah to the public mind. He called every 
one to repent, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. This 
preaching which Mark, with great significance, calls the begin- 
ning of the gospel (1:1), since only a contrite heart can 
appreciate the glad tidings of a Saviour, did not, however, 
proclaim the kingdom of heaven in the sense in which Jesus 
afterwards proclaimed it. To John at this period of his 
mission, as to the old prophets, the approaching time was a 
time of judgment, the great and terrible day (Joel 2:1,2; 
Isaiah 13 : 9 ; Zeph. 1 : 14-16) which must precede the reign 
of the Messiah; the day when the axe would be laid at the 



John the Baptist^ the Forerunner of Christ. 19 

root of the trees to cut down all that were decayed or unfruit- 
ful, and when the chaff would be winnowed from the wheat 
that only the righteous remnant (Isaiah 11:11, 16; 46: 3, 4; 
Jer. 31:7; Joel 2:32; Zeph. 3:13) should partake of the 
glory of that reign. This act of separation had been gener- 
ally understood to refer to the Gentiles who were mingled 
among the Jews. Simeon understood better than this (Luke 
2:34), and John saw the truth still more clearly. It would 
not suffice, he taught, to be the children of Abraham. Only 
a true repentance, finding its expression in righteous acts 
(Matt. 3:8), each man in his own sphere (Luke 3: 10-14), 
would prove men to be true children of the coming kingdom ; 
only by entering into a state of moral purity through the 
remission of sins could the way of the Lord be made straight 
(Mark 1:3; Isaiah 40: 3). 

The whole nation was stirred by John's preaching. Multi- 
tudes went out to hear him, and were baptized by him as 
a token of repentance on their part, and of the washing away 
of their sins by him in whose name John came. Even Phari- 
sees and Sadducees came to his baptism ; but as their coming 
was not an evidence of repentance, but rather of the self-right- 
eous assumption that they were necessarily prominent members 
of the kingdom, they were received with bitter denunciation 
and warnings of the terrors of the coming day of wrath. 

Every one deemed John a prophet (Luke 20 : 6 ; Matt. 21 : 
26 ; Mark 11 : 32) ; many saw in him the promised forerunner ; 
many — for there was much confusion of thought on this 
subject — wondered whether haply he were the Christ (Luke 3 : 
15, comp. John 1: 20). To this he gave a distinct answer. 
Mighty as he was in spiritual power (Luke 1 : 80) , One 
mightier than he was to follow ; One whom he might indeed 
run before, but to whom he was not worthy to render the most 
menial personal service (Matt. 3:11). His baptism was the 
external expression of repentance and the desire for a new 
life, but the Messiah's baptism would be of two kinds. To 



20 The^ Life of the Lord Jesus, 

those who, prepared by the baptism of true repentance, were 
ready to receive him, a baptism of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2 : 28) 
with the power to resist sin (comp. Ezek. 36 : 27) ; to those who 
refused repentance and forgiveness, a baptism of destroying 
fire (Matt. 3 : 10, 12, comp. Mai. 3:2). 

John's preaching was not wholly denunciatory ; it is not 
thus that the way of the Lord is prepared. Luke expressly 
tells us that with many other exhortations he preached good 
tidings unto the people (3:18). 



CHAPTER V. 

JESUS ENTERING ON HIS MINISTRY. 

Matt. 3 : 13—4 : 11 ; Mark 1 : 9-13 ; Luk« 3 : 21, 22 ; 4 : 1-13. 

AS John moved slowly up the Jordan valley baptizing the 
multitudes who flocked to him from Judea and Perea 
and finally from Galilee, his call reached Jesus, occupied at 
his carpenter's bench at Nazareth. He recognized it as the 
divine announcement that the hour for enteriug upon his work 
had come, and he at once repaired to the Jordan. 

It was perhaps the dusk of evening, when all the people had 
been baptized for that day, and were reposing in their black 
tents or under the green booths that they had constructed for 
themselves along the riverside, when Jesus stood before John 
and asked for baptism. Though cousins, they had lived far 
apart, and had probably not met often, if ever ; but something 
in Jesus convinced John that this was the One of whose coming 
he had already been divinely warned, with the promise of an 
attesting sign ; One who was his spiritual superior, whom he 
shrank from baptizing until Jesus persuaded him that it was 
right that even he should submit to this rite. And straightway 
as they came up out of the water the sign was given. The 
spiritually illumined eye of each saw the Spirit of God, in 
bodily form as a dove, descend to abide upon Jesus, and each 
heard a voice speaking directly to his own heart. To John it 
attested the promised sign, to Jesus it spoke the word which 
answered to the witness of his own spirit. Thou art my Son, 
my beloved. It conferred upon him all that was now needed 
for his ministry, power to do that divine will which already his 
human will had accepted. 

Why was Jesus baptized ? Not, surely, for the remission of 

21 



22 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

sins. He was not only conscious of no sin (John 8 :46), but 
all through the eighteen silent years since he had come to the 
special consciousness of his Sonship to the Father, his will 
had been ever coming into more conscious harmony with the 
divine will. Now conformity to the will of God, that is, obedi- 
ence, is the central fact of repentance. This was what John 
had all along been preaching as the essential factor of his bap- 
tism (Matt. 3:8; Luke 3:11, 13, 14). It is a mistake to 
suppose that the consciousness of sin is the most important part 
of repentance. It is rather its reverse side, an element neces- 
sary, but temporary ; for sin, when truly repented of, is forsaken. 
The abiding factor in every repentant soul is, "I delight to 
do thy will, O my God" (comp. Psalm 40:8). The signifi- 
cance of John's baptism was that it was the outward expression 
of the inward " purpose of and endeavor after new obedience." 
It became him to fulfill all righteousness by making the open 
vow of obedience. The vow was more, not less, significant 
because it expressed an obedience more perfect than that of 
any other man who passed under the baptismal waters (Phil. 
2:8). It was here in the waters of the Jordan that he first 
took up the cross. 

After the baptism the Spirit impelled him to go into the 
wilderness for the express purpose of being tempted by the 
devil. There, in a dreadful solitude, of which the wild creatures 
that surrounded him, even though harmless, served to render 
him the more sensible, he was for forty days subjected to con- 
flict with Satan so terrible that during all that time he was 
utterly unconscious of bodily wants. 

How could Jesus, the Sinless, the Obedient, be tempted? 
This difficult question grows clearer when we remind ourselves 
that temptation is not sin. To this we all have the witness of 
our own hearts ; every one of us whose desire is for holiness 
has known what it is to be as our Lord was, tempted, yet 
without sin (Heb. 4 : 15). He was like us in this respect as in 
others ; he differed from us in that he was always victorious. 



Jesus Entering on His Ministry. 23 

There was no crisis in his life when he had to die unto sin and 
be born again unto righteousness. He, no more than we, could 
help being confronted with evil in the guise of good, and we 
are so far like him that we are not tempted by sin in the 
guise of evil. Only devils and Satanic natures love evil for 
its own sake ; its temptation to us is that it seems to he good, 
and that was its temptation to him. But Jesus was quick to 
recognize this specious deceit. Not because he was divine, 
but because as man it was his meat, his whole purpose in life, 
to do the will of God (John 4:34; 6:38), therefore he was 
able to judge quickly and correctly between right and wrong 
(4:30). 

But why was he called to undergo this long period of tempta- 
tion ? It was necessary to him as man as it is necessary to all 
men — for testing. It was especially necessary to him as 
Saviour of men. About to enter upon his public work, he 
must be fully aware of the strength of that power with which 
he had just been endued, of the sufficiency of those principles 
which he had been maturing during his long " silent years," 
and of the strength of the forces of evil with which he would 
have to deal. 

The three temptations with which the forty days of testing 
closed were typical of the struggle which he was to wage 
during the remainder of his life. For he did not here finally 
conquer Satan ; his whole life was a struggle with the powers 
of evil, and only on the cross was the contest finished. But 
the victory which he h^re won was an earnest of final victory ; 
the weapons of his warfare were here proven and were found 
to be entirely sufficient (2 Cor. 10 : 4). 

The first temptation was a subtle attack upon his faith and 
obedience at a time of natural reaction from a state of high 
tension. Jesus had lately been in a wonderful manner declared 
the Son of G-od ; now comes the suggestion : If thou art indeed 
the Son of God — perhaps it was all a mistake. Test it, prove 
it by a miracle which shall supply the very want from which 



24 The Life of the Lord tTesus, 

thou art now suffering: Command this stone that it become a 
loaf. 

It is not sinful, it is only human to want bread when we are 
hungry, and Jesus had now become conscious tnat he wanted 
bread. But he wanted still more to do the will of God. And 
he perceived just where the temptation lay. Not as Son of 
God, but as man must he conquer if he was to redeem the 
world from sin ; and his answer, in which he declines to 
discuss Satan's if makes this plain. As man his meat and 
drink shall be to do God's will ; a word from the mouth of 
God can provide for his wants, but he himself will not speak 
such a word, though he have the power. He will not separate 
himself from the human race with which for its salvation he 
has identified himself. 

The second temptation (following the logical order of 
Matthew) appeals to the natural desire of Jesus for a speedy 
recognition of his character and mission. It was natural, not 
only because it would save him from pain and suffering, but 
because it would save the Jews from sin. There was a wide- 
spread expectation that the Messiah would suddenly appear in 
the temple (Mai. 3:1) to lead Israel to victory. If, said the 
tempter, Jesus would cast himself from that gable of Herod's 
porch which overhung the deep chasm of the brook Kedron, 
trusting in God to fulfill the promise of Psalm 91 : 11, 12, all 
Israel would recognize him at once. Jesus saw that such an 
act would be, not an exhibition of sublime faith, but presump- 
tuous tempting of God. Not by arousing astonishment, but by 
winning the hearts of men, must his salvation be wrought. He 
would no more make parade of divine power now than later 
when he stood before those who came to arrest him (Matt. 
26:53). 

In the third temptation Satan confessed the importance of 
Christ's mission, but demanded (Luke 4:6) that he should 
accomplish it by admitting that the actual supremacy of the 
evil one over the world was the divine order." Many a 



Jesus Entering on His Ministry. 25 

Christian does this, saying that as things are it is impossible to 
do in all things the will of G-od. So long as sin reigns, they say, 
we must not expect ideal goodness. So Satan said to Jesus, 
but he saw through the wretched sophistry. Not for a moment 
would he admit the right of Satan to reign. Sin abounds, but 
God alone reigns. Satan has power over men who will to sin, 
but he has no dominion over those whose will it is to do the 
will of God. Nor was Jesus blinded by Satan's false promise 
that on certain conditions the kingdom should be his. As 
Redeemer of men the kingdom was not his but God's. His 
work could not be furthered by an earthly kingship. This 
temptation, which often seduces Christians who thihk that 
worldly prestige will help them to do good, often occurred 
again to Jesus, but he was never blinded by it for a moment. 
In one sense this was the most seductive of all temptations, 
because the kingdom was the object of all Christ's desires and 
pains ; in another it can hardly be held as a temptation, for 
Satan having now revealed himself (Luke 4:6), his suggestion 
IS at once repudiated and himself commanded to depart 
(Matt. 4: 10). 

For a season he did depart, and then the angels came and 
rendered blessed ministry to Jesus, now fully equipped as the 
Captain of our salvation (Matt. 4:11; Mark 1 : 13, comp. Heb. 
2:10). But the meaning of this threefold temptation was a 
part of all Jesus' future life ; we find it in the Lord's Prayer, 
in its three petitions : Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, 
lead us not into temptation ; we find it in his long nights of 
communion with the Father with whom he more and more felt 
himself to be one ; we find it in his unutterable compassion for 
the multitudes, when they fainted and were scattered abroad as 
sheep having no shepherd, exposed to the attacks of him who 
goes about as a roaring lion ; we find it in his willingness to 
die to deliver men from the power of temptation and from will- 
ingness to sin. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF FAITH IN JESUS. 

John 1 : 19—2 : 12. 

JESUS returned from the wilderness of temptation to the 
Jordan, where, during his absence, John had been 
preaching and baptizing with ever growing popularity. 

The Sanhedrin, or highest court of the Jews, which sat at 
Jerusalem, had at first looked with favor upon John's great 
popularity (John 5 : 35), as tending to promote Jewish hopes; 
but they now thought it time to investigate it more closely ; a 
deputation of priests and Levites was therefore sent to ask 
John in what light he wished to be regarded. He readily 
understood that their unspoken question was w^hether he was 
himself the Messiah. That, he emphatically told them, he 
was not. Nor was he to them Ellas, or any other expected 
prophet, because they were not willing to receive him (Matt. 
1 1 : 14) with the message of repentance that he brought ; to 
such as they, not hostile, indeed, but indifferent, he could be 
but a voice proclaiming the Messiah's coming. His reference 
to the prophet Isaiah was, however, quite enough to make these 
questioners understand his office. In answer to their inquiry 
as to his baptism, he shows the influence of his interview with 
Jesus when he was baptized. He no longer contrasts his work 
with that of Christ, as he had done before, but maintains its 
importance as necessary to the manifestation of Christ (John 
1 : 26, comp. vs. 31) . Nor does he repeat the former announce- 
ment that Messiah is soon to come, but tells them that he is 
already among them. How little they were in earnest in this 
matter is shown by their taking no steps to find him. 

The next day John pointed Jesus out, not to the deputation, 



The Beginnings of Faith in Jesus. 27 

but to the people. Here again we see how much John had 
learned by his interview with Jesus. He no longer describes 
him as a Judge who will take away sin by destroying the sinner, 
burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. He has learned the 
greatest fact about the work of Christ, that salvation is by sac- 
rifice, and he points to Jesus as the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world. He has learned too, the most 
important fact about the person of Christ, that he is the Son 
of God. It is the most impressive witness to the destructive 
nature of a preconceived opinion, closing the mind to the 
reception of new truth, that these two tremendous announce- 
ments produced absolutely no effect. The multitude to whom 
the Baptist spoke were longing for the Messiah, were believing 
that he was at hand and speedily to be revealed, and yet they were 
so bent upon finding him a king who, in the might of divinely 
given power, would destroy all their enemies and set up a king- 
dom in which his people should be supreme over the whole 
world, that they could not recognize him in this obscure and 
humble Nazarene whom John announced. 

Among those who enjoyed John's teaching, the brighter 
spirits had naturally attached themselves to his person. Two 
of these disciples were standing with John the next day, the 
third day of this " bridal week " of the church as it has been 
beautifully called, when John again pointed Jesus out : Behold 
the Lamb of God; they would remember the rest. He cannot 
have been surprised that the two disciples immediately followed 
Jesus ; it must have been with this purpose that he spoke. 

One of these two, we have good reasons for believing, was 
the writer of this gospel, — the " beloved disciple." The other 
was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. So eager was he to 
share the acquaintance of Jesus with others who would be of 
his mind, that as soon as the interview was over he hastened 
away to find his own brother, Simon, and tell him the astound- 
ing news, We have found the Messiah ! Simon believed it and 
came to Jesus ; and it was then that our Lord gave the first 



28 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

evidence of his marvelous knowledge of character by giving to 
Simon the prophetic surname of Peter, a rock. 

The next day two more disciples were added, Philip and 
Nathanael. The latter was a man of singular purity of char- 
acter, and therefore of unusual spiritual insight (Matt. 5:8). 
He, first of the disciples, took home to his intelligence the fact 
of the divine nature of Jesus : Babbi, thou art the Son of God! 
It was in answer to this outbreak of adoring recognition that 
Jesus first called himself by that endearing title, the Son 
of man. It is when we are most deeply awed by his divinity 
that we most need to remember his true human nature. These 
events occurred on four successive days. Jesus had already 
received a twofold witness : from John the Baptist, and from 
the disciples ; it was now time for him to witness to himself. 

Together Jesus and the five returned to Glalilee, stopping at 
Cana, the home of Nathanael. Here at a wedding occurred 
the opportunity for Jesus to witness to himself and to mani- 
fest his glory by a miracle, the turning of water into wine. 
We must observe that no parade was made of this miraculous 
deed ; the time for the self -manifestation of Jesus to the world 
had not yet come ; no one knew of it but the servants and his 
disciples. It was for the sake of his disciples that this miracle 
was done, and we may add, of his mother, from whom he was 
necessarily about to separate himself, and who would be in- 
describably sustained in a trial that the most tender mother 
among us cannot appreciate, by the memory of this witness to 
the glory of her Son. The important fact with regard to the 
miracle is that it manifested forth his glory to those who were 
prepared by a certain degree of faith and love for a whole- 
hearted belief and acceptance of Jesus as Lord. Not that 
they even yet understood all the meaning of his character and 
work. Such marvelous truths could hardly be appreciated all 
at once. These were but the beginnings of their faith in 
Jesus, as well as of the faith of the world. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BEGINNING OF CHRISt's WORK IN JERUSALEM. 

John 2 : 13—3 : 21. 

ALL through the life of Jesus there are evidences that he 
XA. was specially moved by the sight of the temple with its 
associations and typical meaning. On his first visit after 
entering upon his ministry, he would be peculiarly affected by 
the strong contrast between the ideal purity of his Father's 
house and its actual condition. For the Jews had made its 
outer court a house of merchandise^ where beasts and birds of 
sacrifice were sold, and foreign money exchauged for the 
Jewish half shekel for the temple tax. This sight, which must 
always have been painful to Jesus, was now unendurable ; with 
a burning indignation which could not be withstood, he cleared 
the temple court of these defiling presences. By his first public 
act he sought to reawaken in his nation a desire for that 
holiuess which becomes the house of G-od (Psalm 93 : 5). 

Neither those whose traffic was interrupted, nor the rulers 
who drew large revenues from the rent of these privileges, 
resisted him. Both parties knew the meaning of the act : it 
was the Messenger of Jehovah whom the Baptist had an- 
nounced coming suddenly to his temple^ as Malachi had 
prophesied. 

The disciples, who knew something of his heart, were more 
impressed by his burning zeal for the purity of his Father's 
house than by the expected fulfilment of prophecy. But the 
rulers refused to admit that which they should have learned 
from the Baptist preaching, that a national desire for holiness 
must precede the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, and 
they asked him to accredit himself by a still further sign. In 

29 



80 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

response he gave a sign which in fact tested not himself but 
them, their power to recognize the meaning of the religion of 
which they were the teachers. They might, with their covet- 
ousness and unspirituality, destroy the temple^ the outward and 
visible sign, but that which it stood for, the tabernacling of 
God with men, revealed in his own person, they could not so 
destroy but that in three days he could restore it. He spake, 
indeed, of the temple of his body, after the allegorizing method 
of his time and people, of which there are many illustrations 
in the New Testament ; and with which these learned rulers 
were familiar ; but not till after his resurrection did his dis- 
ciples recognize the Scripture (Psalm 16 : 10) to which he 
referred ; the Jews never did. But the saj'ing made a deep im- 
pression, and was kept in public memory ; travestied, it became 
the corner-stone of his accusation (Matt. 26 : 61 ; 27 : 40). 

To the learned, Jesus had given a sign which has remained 
through all time the crowning and adequate proof of his Mes- 
siahship : his resurrection from the dead. But to the poor, the 
ignorant, the humble, he gave more obvious signs, probably 
the healing of the sick (John 2:23, comp. 4:47). G-reat 
interest was excited by his acts, but few, if any, were added to 
the number of his real disciples. 

The Sanhedrin were not at this time hostile to him, but for 
the most part, indifferent ; they did not interfere with him, but 
rather, with a temporizing policy which was in itself guilt in 
those who should have led public opinion, they waited to see 
how things would turn. One of their number, however, Nico- 
demus, came to Jesus in the quiet of night and avowed, not 
only his personal belief in the divine mission of Jesus, but 
that of others among his colleagues, — we know, — basing it 
upon the signs Jesus had shown. Jesus answered his unspoken 
question with the announcement that no one could see the 
kingdom which he came to usher in, unless he was born anew. 
The expression was not entirely new to Nicodemus ; the rabbis 
taught that proselytes must be born again before they could 



The Beginning of Christ's Work in Jerusalem. Bl 

be true Jews ; but Nicodemus did not see how this could apply 
to himself. It was in no captious spirit that he asked how a 
man could be born again when he was old ; the very question 
shows that he took home to himself what on the lips of Jesus 
was only a general statement. And in answer Jesus — who 
never explained truth to any who were unwilling to receive it — 
gave the fullest explanation of regeneration of which we have 
any record, showing that the kingdom was not a new social 
but a new moral state — the work of the Holy Spirit. Though 
a man were born a second time of the flesh, he would still be 
flesh ; what is needed is a new creature., a new spiritual man. 

To the further question of Nicodemus, honestly desiring to 
know how he could apply these things to himself, Jesus utters 
a gentle reproof : he, a teacher of the people, might have 
learned this from the Scriptures. The things which Jesus and 
John the Baptist had so far taught had been earthly things — 
repentance, the coming of the kingdom, the new birth; there 
were heavenly things that could only be told to those who had 
faith. It was these that Nicodemus desired to know, and 
Jesus told him that he was himself the Son of God from 
heaven ; that it was his mission to redeem the world by the 
sacrifice of himself, and that the world would be judged ac- 
cording as men accepted cr rejected him. Illustrating these 
teachings of heavenly things by the Old Testament story of the 
serpent lifted up in the wilderness (Num. 21 : 9), he explained 
how, by his own death, the new life was to be given to those 
who believed in him. 

The deepest teaching of all was that the gift of Jesus proved 
the love of God to men. And here Jesus leaves the title, Son 
of man, by which he has all along identified himself with 
Nicodemus and with all men, and calls himself the Sou of 
God, the only begotten Son. This alone is proof enough of 
the boundless love of God to men ; it is reason enough why 
not to believe in such wondrous love is in itself a sentence of 
exclusion from the kingdom. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JESUS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA. 

John 3 : 22—4 : 42. 

THE Jewish Passover occurred just before harvest time, 
and as Jesus when on his way to G-alilee spoke of har- 
vest time as four months distant, it is evident that he remained 
eight months in Judea. Not, however, at Jerusalem. Jerusa- 
lem, in a sense, had had her " day" (Luke 19 : 42). As the 
representative city, not only of Palestine, but of all Judaism, 
it had been right that Jesus should first make himself known 
there, and at a feast time, when Jews were gathered together 
from all parts of the world. It was appropriate, moreover, 
that he should make himself known in precisely such a way as 
should not meet their expectation of a temporal ruler, but 
should show that his kingdom was one of holiness. This he 
had done, and he had not been received (see Chapter VII). 
A further preparatory work was clearly needed ; and he 
retired into the country districts of Judea, accompanied by a 
few disciples, and there taught concerning the approach of the 
kingdom and the necessity of repentance. His teaching was 
accompanied with even greater success than that of John the 
Baptist had been. All men came to him and were baptized, 
not indeed by Jesus, but by his disciples (John 4: 2). For 
Jesus himself to baptize would have been to act as if he were 
not the coming One whom John had announced, but only 
another forerunner. This baptism was not distinctively Chris- 
tian baptism, which was never administered until after the Holy 
Spirit had been given at Pentecost. It was in substance the 
same rite and with the same significance as the baptism of 
John. 

32 



Jesus in Judea and Samaria. 33 

The Baptist had removed from Bethany to a place, now 
unknown, called ^non, near Salim, and was continuing his 
work when his disciples brought him word of the great enthu- 
siasm which was aroused by the preaching of Jesus, pointing 
out that his own following was falling off in consequence. John 
was too true a prophet not to recognize the meaning of this, 
and too noble a man not to rejoice in it. This was, indeed, 
nothing less than a testimony that he had succeeded in the work 
he had come to do. 

As the months went on and the influence of Jesus in Judea 
spread more widely, the Sanhedrin became aware that their 
policy of indifference was not a safe one ; they must either 
acknowledge Jesus or take some other course, and the simplest 
way seemed to be that of fostering a party of the Baptist, 
antagonistic to that of Jesus. Such a decision showed unmis- 
takably that the preparatory work was done, so far as it could 
be done, and that Judea was no longer a hopeful field of labor. 
Jesus therefore retired into Galilee, where Herod, the tetrarch 
of Galilee, whose sins John as boldly rebuked as he had rebuked 
those of Pharisees and Sadducees, had by this time shut John 
up in prison. That the Judean work of Jesus had not been 
lost upon individuals we have the witness of the families at 
Bethany (John 11 : 1-5, etc.) and Bethphage (Mark 11 : 1-3), 
and of Mary, the mother of Mark (Matt. 26:17, 19, comp. 
Acts 12 : 12) , as well as of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea 
(John 19 : 38, 39) . But of all the multitudes who followed him 
only one, Judas of Kerioth, a town of Judea, attached himself 
closely to his person. The rest of the twelve were Galileans. 

The shortest way from northern Judea led through Samaria, 
and Jesus took that way. It was not a desirable route, for 
there was a strong enmity between the Jews and the Samari- 
tans. The latter were children of Jacob, but of mixed lineage 
(John 4:12, comp. 2 Kings 17 : 24) . They worshiped God, but 
schismatically, having had (until its destruction by John 
Hyrcanus) a temple on Mount Gerizim, on which mount they 



34 Life of the Lord Ji 



still worshiped according to the hiw of Moses, accepting only 
the Pentateuch as sacred Scriptures. The bitterness between 
the pure Jews and the Samaritans was equally strong on 
both sides, and the pilgrims from Galilee to the feasts fre- 
quently went round by way of Perea, .on the other side of the 
Jordan. 

Coming to the well of Jacob (John 4:5, 6, 12, comp. Gen. 
33 : 19) near Sychar (Shechem) at the hour of noon, Jesus sat 
down to rest while his disciples went to buy food. They were 
probably few in number ; there is reason to think that Andrew 
and Peter had already returned to Galilee ; John must have 
been with Jesus, for the story seems to be that of an eye- 
witness, and Judas had perhaps already attached himself to him. 
Philip and Nathanael were perhaps also of the company. The 
story of the coming of the woman to draw water while Jesus 
sat beside Jacob's well, and the conversation between them, 
need not be recapitulated. Our concern is with the meaning 
and purpose of the Lord's teaching. It was a gradual unfold- 
ing of truth, marvelously adapted to her character and capac- 
ity, and yet fuller and more outspoken than almost any of his 
other teachings until long afterwards. 

Beginning with a request for a kindly service, he pointed her 
attention to the fact that there is a need in every human heart 
of something that only God can give, and that that need is so 
imperative that it must break down all walls of separation 
between men. The next step was to show her that he had both 
spiritual insight and superhuman knowledge, so that she could 
not but perceive that he was a prophet, although not even yet 
prepared to recognize in him that gift of God of which he 
had spoken to her. 

With all the eagerness of a receptive and awakened mind, 
she at once put to him the great question which ever lay 
between her people and his : Where ought God to be worshiped ? 
And in answer he brought to her the great truth that the wor- 
ship of God, whom both Jews and Samaritans believe to be 



Jesus in Judea and Samaria. 85 

a spirit, must of necessity be spiritual, not dependent on place 
or ceremony. 

Confused by the unfamiliar teaching, the woman's mind falls 
back upon the thought of him whom the Samaritans looked for, 
not, like the Jews, as king, but distinctively as prophet — the 
prophet like unto Moses — the Messiah. He, when he came, 
could perhaps make even this difficult truth plain. And now 
her mind being sufficiently prepared, Jesus announces that he 
is himself the Messiah. 

Why did he make this clear announcement to this woman, 
and subsequently to the Samaritans (vs. 42), when he studi- 
ously kept it from the Judeans and Gralileans till long after 
this ? Partly, no doubt, because there was no danger of that 
misapprehension of his true mission which continually thwarted 
his work among his own people (John 6:15; Luke 23:2). 
In their expectation of a kingly Messiah, the Jews could not 
or would not perceive that his kingdom was not temporal, but 
spiritual ; the Samaritans, looking only for a prophetic Mes- 
siah, were able to receive the larger truth about him when it 
was given to them. 

Naturally, the woman having once caught a glimpse of the 
wonderful truth, hastened at the first interruption of their con- 
ference to call her neighbors to welcome this Stranger and learn 
of him (vss. 27-29). The interval was used by Jesus to teach 
his disciples two truths : that the spirit is so truly the life of the 
body that one whose whole heart is set upon doing the will and 
work of God has a source of physical power unknown to other 
men ; and also that here, in despised Samaria, were men pre- 
pared to receive the truth. Through the green fields of spring- 
ing corn, that lay between the well and the village, and which 
were then four months off from harvest, they might descry the 
forms of men coming toward them eager to receive the Messiah 
and learn of him — their hearts already white unto a harvest, 
to reap which was to receive the wages of unfailing joy and to 
gather fruit that would abide forever. 



36 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

For two days he abode with them and taught, and they 
received the message. Thus they learned from their own 
experience the true character of the Messiah: that he was 
the Saviour of the world. 



CHAPTER TX. 

THE BEGINNING OF CHRIST's WORK IN GALILEE. 

Matt. 4 : 12-17 ; 14 : 3-5 ; Mark 1 : 14, 15 ; 6 : 17, 18 ; Luke 3 : 18-20 ; 
4 : 14-31 ; John 4 : 43-54. 

JESUS had come to God's covenant people for the purpose 
of their salvation. Yet as no one can be saved but by 
a free choice, it was necessary that as a people the Jews should 
accept or reject him. At the Jerusalem visit (see Chapter VII) 
the disposition of the representatives of the nation had been 
tested, and they were found to be not yet ready to accept him. 
In mercy to them Jesus would not press upon them his offer of 
himself until by further works of his they should be made 
more perfectly acquainted with his character and with the 
nature of his salvation. This preparation would be partly 
through the education of the people at large, partly through 
the choice and training of a special band of disciples. 

For eight months Jesus had been carrying on a sort of pre- 
liminary teaching in Judea. During this time the Jewish hier- 
archy had endeavored to thwart his purpose by fomenting 
discord between those who inclined to his teachings and that 
great multitude who had been attracted by John the Baptist. 
This scheme had been checked by John's retirement into 
Galilee while Jesus remained in Judea. In Galilee John had 
preached not only to the multitudes, but also to the tetrarch, 
Herod Antipas, whose crimes he boldly rebuked, especially 
Herod's seduction of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 
Only the fear of the people, with whom John was very popular, 
kept Herod from adding the murder of John to his other 
crimes ; he did go so far as to imprison him in the remote and 
formidable fortress of Machserus, east of the Dead Sea. 

37 



38 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

This act rendering any further thought of rivahy impossible, 
and the field, as formerly Judea, having been prepared for him 
by the Baptist, Jesus withdrew into Gralilee. This shows no 
change in his plan — as if his purposes had been thwarted by 
his non-acceptance in Judea. It was not only in accordance 
with prophecy (Isaiah 9 : 1, 2), it was also an act of wisdom in 
view of the character of the Galilean people. 

Gralilee, which comprises the northern third of Palestine, 
between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, had been for many 
centuries the great highway of the nations. Through it passed 
the three great roads by which armies moved between Egypt 
and the East, by w'hich the treasures of the East were carried 
by way of Damascus to the markets of Egypt and Europe. 
By reason of their intercourse with foreigners and their dis- 
tance from the temple, the Galileans were widely different in 
character from the Judeans. Not so learned, for they had not 
the fine public school system of Judea, and by no means so 
orthodox, their souls were more free and more open to new 
light. They were ready enough to mingle in business affairs 
with the heathen who made up a large portion of the population 
in Tiberias and Capernaum and other cities, while the Judeans 
would scornfully refuse all intercourse with them ; but they did 
not, like the Judeans, imitate the pomp and luxury of Greece 
and Eome. They were a brave, moral, upright people, homely 
in their customs, but with wide-awake minds. The country 
was densely peopled, but immensely fertile; every one was 
busy and comfortable but no one very rich. Such a state of 
things is precisely that in which new truth thrives best. 

Yet there was likely to be no false excitement at the coming 
of Jesus — a prophet has no honor in his own country ; and at 
this time Jesus wanted to avoid excitement, to start fair, with- 
out controversy and without ill-grounded prepossession (comp. 
John 4:1,3 with verses 43, 44) . 

From Sychar, where Jesus had been spending two days with 
the believing Samaritans, to Cana, was more than sixty miles, 



The Beginning of Christ's Work in G-alilee. 39 

and the Gralilean country was thickly covered with villages. 
In how many of them he preached we cannot say, perhaps in 
two or three, as services were always held on Tuesday and 
Thursday as well as the Sabbath, that the country people who 
lived more than a Sabbath day's journey away might have the 
benefit of the service when they came to town on market days. 
At that period noted preachers were as much sought after as in 
our own day. Wherever Jesus preached he was welcomed ; in 
every village were those who had been to the Feast and knew 
of his action there, and doubtless of others of his deeds. 

From the outset his teaching was an advance on that of John 
the Baptist in two particulars : he no longer taught of the 
kingdom as something even a little in the future; the time is 
fulJlUed, he said ; and therefore to the admonition Repent^ he 
added, and believe in the Gospel ; the good news that the 
Messiah had come and the kingdom of God was now set up in 
the hearts of those who received him. 

His first sojourning place was Cana, where he had friends, 
and where Nathanael lived. Here, apparently, his disciples 
left him and went to their own homes and common duties. He 
had not been long in Cana when he was visited by a nobleman 
from Capernaum — possibly Chuza, Herod's steward, or 
Manaen, his foster brother — with the request that he should 
heal his son, from which we may conjecture that Jesus had 
performed some miracles of healing in Judea (John 2:23). 
The response of Jesus to this request is remarkable, not 
because he healed the sick child from a distance of some fifteen 
or twenty miles — it is not surprising that the Lord of Life 
could command life — but for the method by which he aroused 
and fostered faith in this man's mind. This is what we are to 
observe in all Christ's miracles ; in each one we may find some 
special adaptation to the spiritual state of those in or for whom 
they were wrought. Jesus taught this father that belief was 
the important thing, and with all his tender sympathy with 
every form of suffering, we see that in his mind the important 



40 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

thing was always, not that men should be relieved from pain or 
sorrow, but that they should believe in him. Men were then, 
and they are now, more eager to see signs than to know Christ. 
Having first taught the nobleman the prime importance of 
belief, he appealed to the belief of which the man had given 
evidence by coming to him. By the nature of that appeal and 
its results he developed his faith and raised it into a higher 
sphere. 

It was probably not long after this that Jesus arrived in 
Nazareth, his home of nearly thirty years. Of course he 
went into the synagogue, and very naturally he stood up to 
read. It was always customary to have seven persons take 
part in the reading of the law and the prophets, and a popular 
preacher was always welcome. The passage that Jesus chose 
(Isaiah, ch. 61) is, of all the many Messianic utterances of the 
Gospel Prophet, the one which most perfectly describes Christ's 
mission. Only the substance of his sermon is given : that this 
prophecy was fulfilled in him, that he was himself the Anointed 
One, that his coming was the inauguration of that period of 
which the jubilee year was a type (Lev., ch. 25) — a period of 
universal love and light and liberty. 

It was the custom to wait after the sermon for questions, but 
apparently Jesus heard only low murmurs of altercation — 
some being touched by his gracious words, others contemptuous 
because the Speaker was only the Carpenter whom they all 
knew. Therefore Jesus went on to remind his hearers that 
there was precedent in their own history for thek missing the 
blessing he came to bring : the most beneficent works of Elijah 
and Elisha had been done for aliens. They were stung by the 
reproach which he did not utter — the likeness that they saw 
between themselves and unbelieving Israel of former times ; and 
rushing upon him with the quick fury characteristic of this 
people, they dragged him out of the synagogue and to the brow 
of the precipice that falls off fifty feet into the valley below. 
But they could not kill him. There was about our Lord an 



The Begiyming of Ohrisfs Work in Galilee. 41 

indescribable majesty and dignity that protected him like a suit 
of magic armor : it made the Jewish officers quail (John 7 : 44, 
46) and the Jewish rulers stay their murderous hands (8 : 59), 
it sent the heathen soldiers backward to the ground, and awed 
even imperious Pilate to a certain gentleness (18 :38, 39 ; 19 : 
8, 12). Now, he simply passed through the midst of the Naza- 
rene mob and went his way. 

Rejected by his own city, he made Capernaum his permanent 
home. This city, which dates not earlier than the Return, and 
of which the remains are barely now identified, was then an 
important government post. Near it passed one of the great 
highways ; at its feet lay the sparkling waters of the Sea of 
Galilee, bearing on its bosom an innumerable fleet of vessels, 
Roman war galleys, gilded pinnaces from the royal city, 
Tiberias, and fisher boats with their colored sails. All 
around it was outspread that " garden of abundance" that gave 
the name Genesareth to the lake. Here for a year and a half, 
at least, Jesus called it home ; here many of his mighty works 
were done. Some of our most precious memories of his life 
cluster around this city, " exalted to heaven" in the privilege 
of being the home of the Lord of Life. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CALL OF THE FOUR, AND THE FIRST PREACHING TOUR. 

Matt. 4 : 18-23 ; 8 : 2-4, 14-17 ; Mark 1 : 16-45 ; Luke 4 : 31b-44 ; 5 : 1-16. 

ONE thought is the golden thread on which the quickly 
succeeding events of this lesson may be strung like a 
group of precious pearls; namely, that they all are designed 
to exhibit " the saving benefits of the Kingdom of God." 
The work of Jesus at this time was to teach and to show that 
the Kingdom of God teas beginning to be set up (Mark 1 : 15). 
Jesus had spent some little time in Capernaum (Luke 5 : 1 
indicates thisj preaching and teaching in that town and the 
neighboring villages, finding, no doubt, much refreshment 
in the occasional society of his friends James and John, 
Andrew and Peter, who were now engaged in their regular 
duties as fishermen. Perhaps he now and then paused as he 
went out of the city by the seashore gate to speak a few 
gracious words to the tax collector Matthew, who afterward so 
eagerly obeyed his call. Surely he was sought out by the 
grateful nobleman whose son he had saved, and perhaps in his 
refined family circle, aud the acquaintanceship which it brought 
him of Joanua and Susanna and other women of position 
(Luke 8:3), he found a sweet relief from the coarseness and 
the rude ways of the common people. For Jesus, we must 
remember, was a man most ,refined, most modest, most sweet 
in mind ; it was not a trial to him to associate with the unre- 
fined and uncultured,' because' he loved them so much, and 
himself so little ;' but he was none the less susceptible to the 
refreshment of congenial society. Now the time had come to 
organize the nucleus of that Kingdom of God which he had 
announced ; to form a little society of men who should not 



The Call of the Four^ and the First Preaching Tour. 43 

ODly aid him in preaciiing its Gospel, but in their lives and acts 
should exemplify "the manner of the kingdom" (1 Sam. 
10:25). He therefore called four men, three at least of 
whom had been his pupils and intimate companions, to give up 
their worldly calling and devote their lives to him. He pre- 
faced this call with a miracle, that of a great draught of fishes, 
which had a double significance. Unconnected with humanity, 
it served to show his supremacy over nature ; it had also a 
symbolical meaning, as Jesus showed in his word to Peter, 
from henceforth thou shalt catch men. 

In view of this proof that even in the sphere where Peter was 
most proficient, Jesus had a power undreamed of by him, it is 
not surprising that this impulsive fisherman should exclaim. 
Depart from, me, for I am a sinful man! (Luke 5:8). He 
had already shown a strong faith in the wise judgment of 
Jesus in his Nevertheless at thy word I will (verse 5). But 
such an exhibition of power was also to one enlightened by 
faith a revelation of a holiness so pure, so perfect, so awe- 
inspiring, so in contrast with his own soul, that Peter was 
frightened at the thought of the presence of Jesus. But 
Jesus turned his stormy excitement into a purpose of service, 
reassuring his half-superstitious fear ; even he might now ally 
himself for life with the work of Christ. 

We are not to be surprised that these four fishermen imme- 
diately obeyed his call ; the striking circumstance was rather 
that having once been permitted to live with him in free com- 
panionship, they had before been ready to leave one so alto- 
gether lovely and go back to self-supporting toil. That must 
have been a severe test of obedience, as well as a needed disci- 
pline of their impatience ; now their reward has come : they 
may forsake all and follow him. Yet it probably was no mean 
prospect of affluence that they forsook. The fish trade of the 
Sea of Galilee was at this time one of the most important com- 
mercial interests of Palestine. A firm which besides five part- 
ners required also the services of hired servants (Mark 1 : 20) 



44 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

must have been doing business on a large scale, and the his- 
tory of the early church shows that these were men of no com- 
mon ability. They made deliberate choice of poverty for the 
sake of the fellowship of Jesus ; this, rather than their obedi- 
ence, is the lesson of this event. True, they doubtless antici- 
pated a reward in the kingdom, and we expect a reward in 
heaven, but they were ready to suffer hardship and poverty for 
the sake of the kingdom. Are we? 

The Sabbath following the explicit call of these four men 
which was the first step in the organization of the Kingdom of 
heaven, Jesus entered upon that course of miracles which 
gave a peculiar witness to its nature and to his own functions 
as its founder. He had spent a considerable time in teaching, 
and yet the people of Capernaum had not ceased to wonder 
that he taught with authority ; now he also commanded the evil 
spirits with authority^ casting out a demon from one possessed 
(Mark 1 : 22-27). In both respects he was entirely unlike any 
who had preceded him. The scribes, to whom pertained the 
duty of teaching the Scriptures, always deferred to the author- 
ity of others, to traditions and to noted teachers who had pre- 
ceded them ; Jesus, in his teaching, exerted a royal liberty to 
reject traditional interpretations and to put his own meaning 
into the words of Scripture, enlarging their scope in a way that 
the wisest rabbi could never have dreamed of, and yet that the 
candid hearer could not refuse to accept. But no rabbi, no 
prophet, had ever dreamed of commanding evil spirits. This 
was indeed a new teaching — a new revelation of divine power. 

The demon testified to Jesus, but Jesus would not then and 
never would accept such testimony. It was impossible that 
unclean spirits could know anything of the real character of 
the Holy One of God. It was not the testimony but the obedi- 
ence of the demon that caused the fame of Jesus to be every- 
where rumored abroad. 

That he was Lord not over demons only but over all mamier 
of disease (Matt. 4 : 23) he at once proceeded to show by healing 



The Call of the Four^ and the First Preaching Tour. 45 

Peter's wife's mother of a great fever^ by a single word and 
touch of her hand. These two acts were enough. The inhabi- 
tants of Capernaum could hardly wait for the sacred Sabbath 
time to be closed by the going down of the sun, before they 
besieged Peter's house, in which Jesus was staying, bringing 
with them all their sick and those that were possessed with 
demons. And then and there he gave them a striking witness 
to the nature of his Messiahship, by fulfilling in their sight the 
prophecy of Isaiah (53 : 4) , Himself took our infirmities and 
hare our diseases (Matt. 8 : 17). 

It was precisely because that vSabbath had been more than 
ordinarily crowded with work that Jesus rose iqo a great ivhile 
before day and departed into a solitary place to pray. He 
needed the refreshment of communion with his Father. Those 
of us are poor indeed who have not found in a beloved com- 
panionship a more real rest, a more potent refreshment than 
either food or sleep. And if we know this, how much more he, 
to whom the Father was incomparably more than the dearest 
friend is to us. 

The secret of the marvelous activities which Jesus exhibited 
was prayer — communion with God. "I live by the Father" 
was a physical as well as spiritual fact, and in this truth as in 
other things he is our Exemplar : it was the human Jesus who 
was rested in body and prepared for a long preaching tour by 
a period of early morning prayer. 

Of course the people of Capernaum would gladly have kept 
this miracle-worker with them : the four disciples, fancying that 
this was a hopeful sign of the progress of the Kingdom, would 
have had him return to them. But the witness had been given 
to them, the good tidings that the Kingdom of God had actually 
come, and he must preach this gospel to other cities also. 
Accompanied by his disciples he therefore made an extensive 
tour, teaching, that is, expounding the Scriptural teachings as 
to the Messiah, preaching, that is, announcing the kingdom, 
and performing miracles. The last, we must bear in mind. 



46 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

was a very clear proclamation of himself as Messiah. It was 
very generally believed that the Messiah would be proved by 
his miracles (Matt. 11:4; John 7:31; 11 : 47, 48) ; and it is 
a mistake to think that Jesus had any deske to hide the fact 
that he was the Messiah ; he did desn-e to have the true charac- 
ter of the Messiah recognized, and therefore all his acts were 
designed to correct misapprehension and to show that true 
character. 

For this reason he welcomed an early opportunity to heal a 
leper because, next to the casting out of demons, it gave the 
most significant illustration of his power. Leprosy had been 
from the earliest Mosaic legislation, a. type of sin; and from 
its loathsomeness and inveteracy its cure was a signal witness 
to the power of Jesus. The special point brought out by the 
cure of, this leper was the character of the leper's faith ; he had 
absolutely no reason to hope for a cure except in the Messianic 
power of Jesus ; but he had not the slightest doubt of his power. 
If thou ivilt, thou canst. And in Christ's quick reply, / will, 
we learn what is his disposition toward all human woes. 

He who taught us to pray, first. Thy kingdom come; and 
then, Thy ivill be done., has given us in these words a warrant 
to expect all good results in answer to our prayer of faith, 
when our personal desires are subordinated to the progress of 
the Kingdom. 

That the leper was bidden to testify not in words, but by a 
deed which could not be called in question, shows that Jesus 
would not have those who entered his Kingdom throw off their 
usual religious obligations, and taught those present that 
miracles were not in themselves essential features of the King- 
dom, though the necessary witness to it. And one striking 
teaching of this passage is that the disobedience of this leper, 
far from redounding, as he doubtless fancied it would, to the 
glory of Jesus, robbed him of the common comforts he might 
have enjoyed (Mark 1 : 45) and drew upon him the envious 
watchfulness of the scribes and Pharisees. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE SCKIBES AND PHARISEES FINDING FAULT WITH JESUS. 

Matt. 9 : 2-17 ; Mark 2 : 1-22 ; Luke 5 : 17-39. 

rr^HE whole summer seems to have been spent in the preach- 
_L ing tour, but with the closing in of winter, Jesus was 
come home to Capernaum. These months had been a period 
of ever growing popularity. His miracles of kindness, his 
gracious words, his lovely character, gentle, strong and utterly 
self -forgetful, above all, his proclamation of the kingdom^ had 
drawn great numbers about him. Naturally this attracted 
the attention of the scribes and Pharisees, for the former 
were the educated class, whose especial duty it was to 
teach and to interpret the Scriptures, and the other were 
the peculiarly pious class, zealous for the law as was Saul 
of Tarsus once, and careful of its observance to the smallest 
tittle. Their name, which means separate^ and is equivalent 
to Puritan^ shows what was their notion of the true nature 
of righteousness. 

From this time until his crucifixion, the attention of these 
two classes was concentrated upon Jesus, at first with unsym- 
pathetic scrutiny, and afterward with ever growing hostility. 
Even so early as this, members of both bodies had come from 
Judea and Jerusalem to Galilee with intent to watch him 
closely. Our present study shows how want of sympathy was 
developed into open censure on three occasions and for three 
different reasons. 

This is the historical aspect of this lesson : its spiritual 
meaning is no less important ; the lesson shows the true nature 
of repentance and its 'place in the kingdom of heaven. Up to 
this point the teachings of Jesus, in word and in deed, had 

47 



48 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

touched mainly the fact of the kingdom and its general nature ; 
the events now studied reveal one of its fundamental principles. 

Whether the home of Jesus in Capernaum was with his 
mother or with Peter, the house was so crowded by those who 
heard of his return, that not only the court, around which one 
or more dwellings were built, but the narrow entrance leading 
to it was crowded, and even the narrow street before the door. 
In the most convenient seats, doubtless, were the scribes and 
Pharisees, while Jesus probably stood in the view and hearing 
of all upon the gallery that surrounded the court. A paralytic 
carried on his pallet by four friends was borne up the outer 
stairway to the roof, and having taken up the tiling which 
covered the gallery, the friends let down the pallet to the feet 
of Jesus. 

From the account it would seem that the strongest motive of 
this man in coming was to hear the teachings of Jesus. His 
friends, indeed, may have simply desired his recovery, but it 
was the teaching (Luke 5:17) that the sick man wanted. What 
about the kingdom? How may I enter in? Jesus tells him at 
once. Son — that most endearing title — thy sins are forgiven 
(literally are being forgiven) . This is an important fact of the 
kingdom : its members are forgiven sinners. 

The scribes and Pharisees objected that Jesus was a blas- 
phemer, because only Grod can forgive sins, but they — learned 
and righteous men — ought to have known that the Son of man 
had authority on earth to forgive sins. They were aware that 
the title, the Son of man, the true, the typical Man, belonged 
to the Messiah : Jesus used it in preference to the word Mes- 
siah, because the signification of that word had, as we know, 
been perverted. They knew that the Messiah must receive 
authority as God's representative. And so he proved before 
their eyes that he had this authority, by^ a word of command, 
as easy to say as the word of forgiveness, and no more potent, 
if he had it not, but at which the helpless man arose, lifted 
that whereon he had been lifted, and ivent forth before them all. 



The Scribes and Pharisees Finding Fault with Jesus. 49 

Up to this time Jesus had been as careful not to arouse 
opposition as not to permit false hopes. But now that he had 
openly proclaimed his authority to forgive sins, such caution 
would be needless. Those who longed for a kingdom the 
highest expression of which would be the forgiveness of sins 
would now be strongly attracted ; those who desired a temporal 
kingdom would assuredly be repelled. His next step, there- 
fore, was one which would without doubt strengthen the dis- 
like of those who had before been unsympathetic, and as surely 
give hope and courage to a great number who up to this time 
had not dared to take to themselves the good tidiugs of the 
kingdom. 

The publicans, or tax-gatherers, were a hated class, both 
because the system of imposts at this time was excessively 
minute and vexatious, and because it was a continual reminder 
that the nation was subject to Roman authority. The most 
despised of this most despised class were those who themselves 
sat at the place of toll, instead of hiring subordinates. Of 
these was Levi of AlphcBus, better known to us as Matthew. 
His place of toll was by the seaside ; , he must often have heard 
Jesus preach to the multitudes gathered there, had probably 
witnessed the call of the four disciples, and longed, but without 
hope, to be permitted such a discipleship. Now, as Jesus was 
passing by, going to the sands for the better accommodation of 
the multitudes who resorted to him in consequence of his last 
miracle, he spoke to Levi, as he had probably often done 
before, but this time with the words. Follow me. Who but can 
feel something of the leap of heart with which he forsook all 
and rose up and followed him. 

The feast which Matthew shortly made was given, we must 
believe, not so much to do honor to Jesus, as to give an oppor- 
tunity to publicans and others who would not be likely to fre- 
quent the synagogue to sit down with him and hear his teach- 
ings. And now, at the open murmurings of the scribes and 
Pharisees, not within themselves, as before (Mark 2:8), but 



50 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

to his disciples (for they did not even yet dare openly oppose 
him) , he explained more fully the nature of the forgiveness of 
sins and of the character of his kingdom. 

The Jews had believed and taught that the favor of God 
depended upon the condition of a man's heart ; that a repent- 
ant man might be forgiven, and therefore called of God. 
Jesus showed that this truth was rather to be looked on from 
the reverse side. He first called the sinner to himself, and so 
made him a penitent ; first assured him of the forgiving love of 
God, Son, thy sins are forgiven thee; and that man was bound 
to him for evermore in contrition and desire for obedience. It 
was sinners whom he had come to call to the kingdom; 
Matthew (9 : 13) and Mark (2 : 17) say nothing about 
repentance. His call then was the same that it had always 
been : into the kingdom. The whole, the righteous, were 
members of it already; they needed no call, for the Old Testa- 
ment idea of righteousness included, not merely (like the 
Greek) conformity to law, but also a disposition to accept the 
will of God. By this test these murmuring scribes and Phari- 
sees might, if they would, judge of the character of their own 
righteousness. The kingdom of God is " a kingdom of grace 
in order to be a kingdom of holiness." Repentance is its 
foundation, but its chief corner-stone is the love of God in 
Christ ; it is those who are in, not those who are out, who 
repent of the sins that they have committed. 

The scribes and Pharisees, having complained of his eating 
in bad company, went a step farther and complained of his 
not requiring his disciples to fast. In this matter they found 
it easy and expedient to gain the disciples of the Baptist to 
their side, though naturally these would be the friends of Jesus. 
The figure by which Jesus answered must have gone home to 
the hearts of those who had first heard their own Master use 
it, in joy at the " increase " of Jesus. Fasting, Jesus taught 
them, was the natural expression of sorrow, and therefore, by 
a figure, of repentance. But his disciples had reason for joy, 



The Scribes and Pharisees Finding Fault with Jesus, 51 

not sorrow. Their time of fasting would indeed come ; but 
sorrow in itself is no more moral than joy. It was useless to 
try to compress the new spirit of the kingdom into the old 
forms of a bygone time ; all that was valuable in the old would 
be injured, and the new itself destroyed. A new spirit, a new 
condition of things, must come with the setting up of the king- 
dom ; for this new forms must, in the nature of things, be 
found. It is indeed natural for men to prefer the accustomed ; 
natural to think that the old ways, old ritual, old forms are 
good enough. Christ did not say that this is a mistake ; he 
simply offered the new to those who would receive them. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SABBATH QUESTION : FIRST PLOTS TO KILL JESUS. 

John, Chap. 5 ; Matt. 12 : 1-14 ; Mark 2 : 23—3 : 6 ; Luke 6 : 1-11. 

"YT'T'E have now come to a crisis in the life of Jesus. Dis- 
V V trust and disfavor had ah-eady been rife ; the scribes 
and Pharisees had questioned his right to forgive sins, blamed 
him for eating with publicaus and sinners, and for not conform- 
ing his new teachings to the old forms to which the people were 
accustomed. Now hostility oecame more pronounced and took 
on a new aspect. 

The date of the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem narrated in 
John's fifth chapter, and the Feast which was its cause, are 
unsettled points. For our present purpose they are points of 
no moment ; for whether slightly earlier or later, there is no 
doubt that the cure which Jesus performed at this time is 
properly grouped with the other events here included as marking 
a crisis in his history. 

For some reason which is not told, Jesus had gone up alone 
to Jerusalem to attend this feast. While there, he went on the 
Sabbath to a noted pool near one of the city gates, called 
Bethesda (the House of Mercy) ^ because of the health-giving 
properties of intermittent springs long since gone dry, like 
many others known to history. 

Among the many sufferers gathered in the porticoes that 
surrounded this pool, to wait for the bubbling up of the springs, 
Jesus saw one who had been for thirty-eight years infirm, 
having, doubtless, outlived those relatives who might have been 
interested enough in him to watch with him and take advantage 
of the bubbling up of the waters. This helpless man Jesus 
healed with the words. Arise ^ take up thy bed and ivalk. His 



The Sabbath Question : First Plots to Kill Jesus. 53 

prompt obedience immediately attracted the attention of the 
authorities, for to carry a bed was an infringement of the 
Sabbath law. 

Now the Sabbath law of the Jews had come to be a very 
onerous thing. As given by Moses it was an indescribable 
blessing — a most civilizing as well as spiritualizing influence, 
making half -civilized men considerate of slaves and cattle, as 
well as giving them new views of the relations in which they 
stood to G-od. The Mosaic Sabbath taught the beauty of 
holiness, the power of sanctification, the sacred relief of rest 
after labor, and the sacred rights of the dependent. 

During the Captivity the Sabbath had been the greatest com- 
fort and blessing of the Jews, beiug almost the only part of 
their ritual which they could observe, and a very important 
means of keeping them separate from the heathen and of sus- 
taining their national spirit. It was not strange that they came 
to prize it as one of their highest blessings, nor even that they 
began to hedge it with regulations and proscriptions, in which 
at last its true spirit was lo^t. Long before the time of Jesus 
the scribes had quite forgotten the Mosaic idea of the Sabbath 
in the rigorous formalism by which they had made it a burden 
too heavy to be borne. Petty rules as to the work one might 
do, the distance one might walk, the weight one might carry, 
the service one might render to the sick and suffering, or 
rather, the negative of all these, had wholly robbed it of its 
ideal character. It is very important to observe that in all the 
acts grouped under this lesson, and the simiUar ones mentioned 
in the Gospels, Jesus ivas deliberately trying to restore and to 
fulfill the divine ideal of the Sabbath; to bring out of it its 
highest meaning, and make it once more the priceless boon to 
man that God had meant it to be. To do this he openly broke 
the rabbinical Sabbath laws. 

One of these laws prescribed that no medical aid could be 
given to the sick, except where life was in danger ; another 
that nothing might be carried, not even the smallest scrap 



54 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

of parchment. In this act of healing both these laws had 
been broken, and the Jewish authorities were highly indig- 
nant. Much more was their indignation roused by the reason 
which Jesus gave for doing this kindness upon the Sabbath 
day, My Father iDorheth even until oioiv, and I u^ork. His 
act was in accordance with the divine order, for the benefi- 
cent works of providence and redemption did not cease on 
the Sabbath day. 

But the self -justification of Jesus was more than this, as the 
Jews saw. Just as he had proclaimed his relation to the 
Temple by his first public act, he now proclaimed his relation 
to the Sabbath : that it was a part of his mission to restore the 
Jewish Sabbath observance to correspondence with the divine 
ideal. Not by a minute petty ritual, but by working the works 
of the Father is the Sabbath to be sanctified. More than this, 
Jesus now distinctly aflflrmed that as Messiah his relation to the 
Father was one of a peculiar Sonship, that he had power to 
interpret the Father's will as well as to do his works. All this, 
he said, they, the rulers and teachers of the people, ought 
themselves to have known both by the testimony of John the 
Baptist and by that of the Scriptures, which also testified of 
him. This arraignment of themselves, when they had thought 
to arraign him, had the effect naturally to be expected in the 
case of evil-disposed men ; their hostility henceforth became 
open and inveterate. 

Although the words, " and sought to kill him," of John 5 : 
16, are omitted in the Revised Version, and are obviously pre- 
mature, it is certain that from this time the authorities kept a 
strict watch on Jesus. On his return to G-alilee all his actions 
were observed, and when on a certain Sabbath day his disci- 
ples, walking with him through a wheat field, plucked a few of 
the ripe ears and ate them after rubbing off the chaff with their 
hands, their Master was at once taken to task for permitting a 
breach of the Sabbath. What they had done was in accordance 
with common law and custom, but being done on the Sabbath 



The Sahhath Question : First Plots to Kill Jestis. 65 

it was a double breach of the rabbinic Sabbath law, which con- 
strued it to include both reaping and grinding. 

Jesus had met the attack upon himself (in Jerusalem) by 
a statement of his own character and mission. He met this 
attack upon his disciples with a fourfold answer. The history 
of the Jewish people (1 Sam. 21 : 1-6) taught that the law of 
necessity was higher than the law of ordinances ; the very 
legislation of Moses taught (Num. 28 : 9) that the law against 
Sabbath work was not without qualification ; the character of 
God as proclaimed by himself (Hosea & : ^) taught that the 
inward grace was of far more value than mere outward observ- 
ance, and finally, he himself claimed to be Lord even of the 
Sabbath, not for the reason which he had given to the Jews at 
Jerusalem, that he was the Son of God, but because he was 
the Son of Man, the typical, the ideal Man. 

By this answer he in no sense destroyed or abrogated the 
Sabbath, he fulfilled it, pouring into it all its richest meaning, 
making it the priceless boon which in the mind of God it had 
been when he raised the custom of many nations of a seven 
days' rest to the dignity of a sacred observance, an act of wor- 
ship. The sacred rest day was given to subserve the very 
highest needs of man ; whatever subserves them is lawful, 
whatever has no bearing upon those needs is a breach of the 
Sabbath, though no work at all were done. 

As in Jerusalem, so here, inveterate prejudice prevented the 
entrance of light into the minds of the Pharisees and scribes. 
They of Jerusalem would not receive the glorious truth that 
the Messiah for whom they looked was the divine Son of God, 
because their minds were fully made up as to the kind of Mes- 
siah they wanted. These Galilean Pharisees were just as 
stubbornly determined not to receive his teachings of the 
royal law of liberty, the divine ideal of the Sabbath, because 
they were wedded to their traditional interpretations of the 
Mosaic law. No longer passively hostile, they now determined 
to accuse him , they seized the first opportunity of making 



66 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

" a test case" by bringing to his notice a man with a withered 
hand (a malady not endangering life, and therefore not " law- 
ful " to heal on the Sabbath day) , who had come to the syna- 
gogue with no thought of being healed, but simply to attend 
the service. Jesus first carried the matter into the domain of 
morals : Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do 
harm f He next brought it into the realm of practice : if one 
of them has a sheep fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day, he 
will lift it out ; he will show that he knows it is lawful to do 
good on the Sabbath day. But how much is a man of more 
value than a sheep ! And thirdly, his questions being un- 
answerable, he healed the man, but without breaking even the 
minutest point of the Sabbath law. " Stretch forth thy hand !'* 
No law could forbid such an act ; but the man did it, and was 
healed, healed by a power which made the impossible possible. 
By no possibility except of faith could the man even try to 
stretch forth his hand. By no power but that of Jesus could 
he have obeyed Jesus' command. The proof that the Son of 
Man was Lord of the Sabbath was as irrefragable as the proof 
(Chapter XI) that the Son of Man had power on earth to for- 
give sins. 

They were past wishing to be convinced, past being willing 
to be convinced. Now they threw off the mask. The Jewish 
Sanhedrin had no criminal jurisdiction in G-alilee, and rather 
than acknowledge their Messiah they would join those whom 
they hate with inveterate hatred, the Herodians, who desire the 
subjection of the Jews to Rome, and take counsel with them 
how they might destroy him (Mark 3:6). 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CHOOSING OF THE TWELVE. 

Matt. 4 : 23-25 ; 10 : 2-4 ; 12 : 15-21 ; Mark 3 : 7-19a ; Luke 6 : 12-19. 

THE second period of Christ's ministry in Galilee extended 
probably from the early summer of a.d. 28 to the follow- 
ing Passover, April 18, a.d. 29. By this time he had distinctly 
announced his own character and the character of the kingdom. 
He claimed the title of Son of Man, which was perfectly well 
understood to be a title of the Messiah ; he performed the 
attesting miracles which were expected of the Messiah. But 
he raised the character and functions of the Messiah into an alto- 
gether higher sphere than that which the Jews had attributed to 
that personage. As Lord of the Sabbath, as exercising divine 
power to forgive sins, he claimed to be the interpreter of the 
divine law as it applied to men, and the interpreter of the divine 
attitude toward mankind. He claimed, in other words, to be 
the Revelation not only of God but of man. To say of the 
kingdom, moreover, that it consisted of forgiven sinners contra- 
dicted the fundamental Jewish ideas regarding its constituency. 
From this time forth the authorities were accordingly bent 
on the destruction of his influence — not necessarily his death, 
but his suppression. But either was difficult because the 
popularity of Jesus had now become something amazing. 
Multitudes came to him, not only from Galilee, where he was 
personally known and had performed astounding miracles, and 
from Judea, where he had taught and had been publicly pro- 
claimed, but also from Idumsea, and from the wealthy and 
cultured Greek centres of the Decapolis beyond Jordan (which 
included Damascus), and from Phoenicia on the Mediterranean 
coast. The excitement concerning him was very great, and 

57 



58 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

partly as a sifting process, partly because the multitude would 
thus be more manageable, Jesus withdrew into the country. 
Knowing as he did that the disfavor of the scribes and Phari- 
sees equaled the admiration of the multitude, it is very 
impressive that he now took a step which tended at once to 
moderate the enthusiasm of the people and to intensify the 
disfavor of the authorities. That is, he deliberately organized 
his kingdom by selecting twelve men from among the multitudes 
of those who had cast in their lot with him, henceforth devoting 
himself to their education and training. But from this time 
his public work and teaching, though a means to their training, 
were always subordinated to this end. It is not a minor 
matter that the Twelve were chosen by Jesus (John 15:16). 
Multitudes came to him voluntarily and followed him gladly ; 
there were some who even asked to be ranked among his special 
followers (Matt. 8 : 19, 21), but the number of these, and the 
individuals who made up their number, were the subject of a 
careful, well-considered choice, after months of acquaintance 
and study of their characters, and after a long night of counsel- 
ing with his Heavenly Father. 

Four lists of the Apostles are given us, two by Luke (see 
Acts 1 : 13) and one each by Matthew and Mark. No two are 
precisely alike, but all have certain points in common, such as 
the grouping in fours with the same names in each group differ- 
ently arranged, but in all cases headed by the same names. 

Simon stands at the head — him whom Christ on first seeing 
surnamed the rock (John 1:42). He was the most genuine, 
the most human of all the disciples, warm-hearted, enthusi- 
astic, impetuous ; self-forgetting, yet artlessly self-conscious ; 
intuitive, but not logical ; sympathetic, but not tenacious of 
will ; intense in devotion ; always ready either to speak or to 
act ; liable to err, but quick and whole-souled in repentance ; 
such was Peter, who through an absolute self-surrender became 
the rock whom Jesus made the corner-stone of his work. He 
preached widely among Gentiles as well as Jews (1 Cor. 1:12; 



The Choosing of the Twelve. 59 

Gal. 2 : 11), and tradition says that he suffered martyrdom at 
Rome. 

The brothers James and John were in many respects simi- 
lar ; intense, fiery, quick-tempered, tenacious, energetic, the 
very antithesis or complement of Peter in these respects, but 
like him in intensity of love, in quick response to the thought 
and mood of Christ. Less self-forgetful than Peter (Matt. 
20:21), but not less devoted to their Lord, they were, with 
Peter, his congenial ahd most intimate companions. To James 
came the honor of being the first Apostolic martyr (Acts 12 : 
2) ; to John that of living longest to testify of the work and 
character of Christ, and of writing a Gospel, three epistles 
(perhaps), and the Apocalypse. He was exiled to Patmos 
probably under Domitian and died at a great age in Ephesus. 

Of Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, we know little 
except that he brought his brother to Jesus (John 1:41). 
He seems to have been peculiarly approachable (6:8), and yet 
slow to put himself forward. Tradition says that he preached 
in Thrace or in Scythia, and suffered martyrdom in Achaia. 

Philip was a townsman of Andrew and Peter. He seems to 
have been earnest and ready to believe (John 1 : 45) and glad 
to have others believe (12 : 21), but slow to think (14 : 8, 9) ; 
it was, perhaps, for that reason that Jesus asked him the 
question of John 6:5. Tradition says he preached the Gospel 
in Phrygia. He is mentioned in Acts 1 : 13, but is not the 
same as Philip, the evangelist, spoken of in the subsequent 
narrative. 

Nathanael (John 1 : 45) was the friend of Philip and 
brought by him to Jesus. In the lists of the Apostles Bar- 
tholomew is always associated with Philip, and as this is not a 
name, but a surname (the son of Talmai), there is little ques- 
tion that he is Nathanael. He is said to have preached in 
India (whither he carried a Gospel of Matthew) and in other 
parts of Asia, and to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia. 

Thomas is called Didymus in Greek, both his names meaning 



60 Tlie Life of the Lord Jesus. 

"the twin," and as he is always mentioned with Matthew, 
it has been thought not impossible that they were brothers. 
He is the representative of the critical spirit, the honest 
doubter, earnest, inclined to melancholy and to discourage- 
ment (John 14 : 5), yet loyal even to death (11 : 16), joyful to 
find himself mistaken and to give himself up to the truth 
(20:24-28). He is said to have preached in Parthia, or in 
Persia, to have been pierced to death by lances, and to have 
been buried at Edessa. Two apocryphal works are associated 
with him. 

Matthew, the publican, possibly a renegade Levite (Luke 
5 : 27), certainly lax in patriotism, seems to have been entirely 
made over by Jesus. He turned to account the facility with 
the pen acquired in his worldly calling, by giving to the world 
the priceless boon of a written record of our Lord's life. He 
is said to have preached in Judea fifteen years, and afterwards 
in Parthia, Media, and Persia. 

James the Little (with reference to stature, not prominence) 
was the son of Alphaeus, or Clopas, whom one tradition makes 
a brother of Joseph, the husband of Mary. His mother was 
one of those who followed Jesus in his last journey, to the 
cross (John 19 : 25) and to the tomb (Luke 24: 10). He is 
said to have labored and been crucified in Egypt. 

The " three-named " disciple is Judas, the son, or brother, 
of James (Luke 6:16). He is surnamed Lebbaeus (Matt. 
10:3, A. v., the man of heart or courage), and Thaddseus 
(praise). The only clew to his character besides his surnames 
is that in John 14 : 22, where he shows himself to have imper- 
fectly apprehended the teachings of Jesus. There is no trust- 
worthy tradition as to his later life. 

Simon, the Kanangean, or Zealot, had formerly belonged to 
a body of fierce patriots, whose war cry was, "We have no 
king or master but God," and whose ungovernable enthusiasm 
finally brought on the destruction of Jerusalem. If he was 
already a member of the band at the time of the insurrection 



The Choosing of the Twelve. 61 

mentioned in Acts 5 : 36, he must have been some twenty years 
older than Jesus. He also was a son of Alphseus, and there- 
fore brother of James the Little and (probably) Judas. Tra- 
dition says that he was Bishop of Jerusalem after the martyr- 
dom of James the Just (the Lord's brother), that he led the 
Christians to Pella before the destruction of that city, and 
was crucified at the age of 124. 

Judas Iscariot is the dark problem of the Apostolic group. 
Yet we must remember that our Lord's choice of the Apostles 
did not destroy their free will, and that each one of the Twelve 
was open to temptation ; Judas had the same possibilities of 
good that the others had. His master-passion was covetous- 
ness. The mistaken ideas of the nature of Christ's kingship 
and kingdom which he shared with all the Apostles, and 
especially with Simon Zelotes and even v^^ith James and John, 
were never corrected in his mind, as in theirs, by love and 
self-giving. He was, we may observe, the only Judean among 
the Twelve. 

These were the disciples, witnesses of Jesus, chosen by him 
to be living " links in the fellowship " between himself and all 
believers. Five of them, probably, were bound to Jesus by 
relationship and gave him the strong support of family affec- 
tion. At least three, Matthew, James, and John, were in 
prosperous circumstances, though all were unconventional men 
of the people. Not unlettered, for no Israelite was that, even 
in Galilee, but unlearned in rabbinical lore, their preconceived 
opinions were not a matter of intellectual pride, like those of 
the scribes, but easily gave way before new light. Simple in 
their habits, energetic, artless, sincere, plastic, they were the 
best possible material for that which Jesus needed to mould 
them to. Varied in temperament, habits, feelings, their 
njutual interaction was only less important than the moulding 
and inspiring influence of Jesus, in making them the ministers 
of a new covenant, the missionaries of a new Gospel, the 
foundation stones of the kingdom of God on earth. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 



Matt. 5 : 1—8 : 1 ; Luke 6 : 20-49. 

IT was on one of the hilltops of the elevated land north- 
west of the Sea of Galilee that, having passed the night 
in prayer (Luke 6:12), Jesus selected his Twelve Apostles from 
a large multitude who had followed him (Mark 3:13-15). 
During this ceremony those not called retired to one of the 
plainlike reaches of the lower hill (Luke 6:17), where increas- 
ing numbers joined them, bringing their sick. Coming down 
to this level place after having appointed the Twelve, he healed 
their diseases, and then, retiring to a slight elevation where he 
could be seen by all, and seating himself, his twelve disciples 
clustered round him, and to them first, but also to the listen- 
ing multitude, he gave the law of the kingdom of God. 

The sermon occupies three chapters in Matthew, very much 
less in Luke. The third Evangelist, writing for Gentiles, gives 
the principles of the law and their general illustrations, but 
leaves out that large body of illustration drawn from the Mosaic 
law (Matt. 5 : 17-47) as being without significance to them, 
who knew nothing of that law. He leaves out also another 
section (chap. 6) based on the religious customs of the Jews. 
Two sections given by Matthew (6 : 19-34 ; 7 : 7-13) are found 
in Luke, not as a part of this sermon, but in a historic setting 
(Chapters 11, 12, 13), and were probably added by the 
first evangelist to what was spoken at this time, according to 
his habit of bringing together all the teachings of Jesus on a 
given subject. 

As we find it in Matthew the sermon consists of a prologue 
(5 : 3-16), three Parts (5 : 17-48, chap. 6 and 7 : 1-23) and an 

62 



The Sermon on the Mount. 63 

Epilogue (7 : 24-27) ; the following passage (7 : 28 — 8 : 1) is 
a brief account of the immediate impression created by the 
sermon upon the hearers. 

The prologue (5:3-16) contains the nine Beatitudes (vss. 
3-11), giving the character of members of the kingdom, and an 
epilogue (vss. 12-16) describing their function in the world. 
Two things may be noticed here : (l) This was not "a new teach- 
ing." Every one of these truths may be found in the Old 
Testament. (2) Christ is not here promising rewards for good 
conduct ; the poor in spirit, the merciful, those who hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, the pure in heart, are not promised 
the kingdom, mercy, realized righteousness, or the vision of 
God as reward, nor are they assured that through the former 
they shall attain the latter ; the two belong together ; he that is 
the one has the other. Both parts of each beatitude are the 
actual character of the members of the kingdom. And their 
function (vss. 13-10) is to preserve and illuminate the world 
that God may be glorified and the kingdom thus extended. 

As to the Law of the Kingdom (5:17 — 7:23) Jesus does 
not show that it supersedes the Law of Moses ; it completes it. 
Verses 17-20 of Chapter 5 are, properly speaking, the text 
of the entire discourse ; all the rest elucidates this statement. 
The principle is this : the kingdom of God is a kingdom of 
righteousness; and its demand is, therefore, for "the entire 
supremacy of righteousness in the inner man." 

In these verses Christ raises into a higher realm the two car- 
dinal ideas of Judaism, the kingdom and righteousness. The 
Jews believed, just as he taught, that the kingdom was to be 
one of righteousness, but their notions on both these points 
were entirely inadequate. Their notion of the kingdom was 
best expressed in Daniel 2 : 44 : Israel was to subdue all nations 
and then make them righteous. But Christ's idea was, that 
men, being righteous^ were of the kingdom in the very nature of 
things. Hence John's long preparatory ministry ; hence his own 
long work of preparation in Judea, and afterward in Galilee. 



64 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

The three years of his ministry were half expired before 
he instituted his kingdom by the appointment of his Apostles. 
Again, the Jewish notion of righteousness (expressed in Deut. 
6 : 25) was the observance of all the Commandments. That 
of Jesus was an inward disposition of the heart, which being 
given the Commandments were necessarily observed. It was 
not — and this is a much neglected point — it was not because 
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees consisted chiefly 
in minute additions to the Mosaic legislation that Jesus said 
that the righteousness of members of the kingdom must 
exceed it. All principles of righteousness fall short, and all 
forms of righteousness are without worth, except ^as they meet 
the inward answer of the heart, "I delight to do Thy will, 
O my God." 

The passage (5 : 17-23) which we have called the text of the 
discourse (perhaps it may better be called its kernel) clearly 
strikes a blow at the very common error that Christianity 
absolves its followers from obedience to the Law. Jesus in 
this sermon did teach that the Law cannot be fulfilled and there- 
fore we must look to him for salvation ; he distinctly teaches 
that it must be fulfilled. True, fulfilling it is not the means of 
salvation, but the result ; the sermon is addressed to those who 
are in the kingdom,- not to those who are out of it ; but those 
who are in are not absolved from obedience to Law ; how can 
they be ? Tliy Law is within my heart is their true portrait. 

This fact of the permanent obligation of the Law of God 
receives a threefold illustration and application in the three 
Sections of the sermon. The First (Matt. 5 : 21-48) tests and 
elucidates Christ's principle of heai^t righteousness by applying 
it to six different cases of Mosaic teaching, respecting murder 
(vss. 21-26), adultery and divorce (vss. 27-32), oaths (vss. 
33-37), retaliation (vss. 38-42), and the treatment of enemies 
(vss. 43-47) , with a summing up of the whole (vs. 48) . Jesus 
is not here condemning rabbinical additions to the Mosaic 
Law ; with the single exception of the words, aiid hate thine 



The Sermon on the Mount, Qb 

enemy (vs. 43), every teaching which Jesus passes under 
review is found in the Old Testament. Far from abrogating 
these teachings, he does not condemn them ; he fulfills, com- 
pletes them, carries them up to those highest terms which are 
necessarily theirs when the heart accepts them and finds them, 
as Paul did, not only holy, just, and good (Rom. 7 : 12), but 
also spiritual (14). And having applied his principle of heart 
obedience to them all, he gives the secret of the power of this 
obedience (Matt. 5 : 45) . He who is a son of God has an essen- 
tial likeness to God ; this it is which makes the keeping of the 
law his natural condition. And therefore he closes this section 
with verse 48, which, whether read as a command (A. V.), or 
a promise (R. V.), is equally cogent, perfection being neither a 
work nor a belief, but a state. 

In the Second Section (Chapter 6), the same principle of 
heart righteousness is illustrated, not from the Law, but from 
the religious practices of the Jews. The most important of 
these were almsgiving (1-4), prayer (5-15), and fasting (16- 
18), as the expression of piety, spirituality, and sanctity. All 
these are characteristic of the members of the kingdom, but 
not as external acts. They are the manifestation of an inward 
condition. Out of this view of religious practices arises the 
truth that the entire life of the member of the kingdom is for 
God; and the concluding passage (19-34) expands the mean- 
ing of that truth in its application to the one absorbing interest 
of human life, the provision for its sustenance. It is impossible 
for the member of the kingdom to make this his chief interest 
(25), nor is it necessary (32). The kingdom of God and his 
righteousness is the chief interest of the member of the king- 
dom (33) ; his temporal welfare is the concern of his heavenly 
Father. 

Section Three (7 : 1-23) applies the principle of heart right- 
eousness to the Christian's relations with men. Self-reformation 
must, in the nature of things, precede our attempts to reform 
others if those attempts spring from a heart righteousness. 



66 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Like Section Two, this section is divided, verses 13-20 being 
the practical application of the truth to the Christian: the 
test of this heart righteousness is its fruits ; men cannot remain 
sinners who have been called to the kingdom. The subject is 
completed in 21-23 by being brought round to the text (5 : 17), 
the necessity of obedience to the Law. The Epilogue follows 
(vss. 24-27) . The kingdom, being established in righteousness, 
is built upon the rock ; without righteousness the foundation is 
but sand. 

Such teachings as these naturally excited the surprise of 
those who heard, accustomed to the teachings of the scribes. 
He taught with authority^ not merely because he did not base 
his teachings on those of any predecessor, but because he did 
not at ail pretend to justify them. He did not argue nor 
reason ; he simply spoke the words as irrefragably true. The 
witness was in the words and in those who heard them. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SECOND PREACHING TOUR. 

Matt. 8 : 5-13 ; 11 : 2-19 ; Luke 7:1 — 8:3. 

HAVING organized the kingdom, and promulgated its law 
by a single miracle, Jesus taught who are its members. 
Immediately after preaching the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus 
returned to Capernaum (the story of the leper, Matt. 8 : 2-4, 
is evidently misplaced). He had hardly reached home when 
he was met by a deputation of elders from the synagogue, 
begging him to go and heal the slave of a Roman centurion. 
The accounts in Matthew and Luke differ in detail, though it 
is not difficult to find in Matthew room for the fuller details of 
Luke. 

This centurion was at the head of a company of (about) 
one hundred Roman soldiers, who were stationed at Capernaum 
under Herod's authority. In general, such an officer would be 
the subject of Jewish detestation ; this Roman was, however, 
honored and respected. Though not a Jewish proselyte, there 
is no reason to doubt that he belonged to that considerable 
circle of "devout" Gentiles of whom we find many in the 
Acts (10 : 2, 7 ; 13 : 50 ; 17:4, 17), who ever formed the most 
fruitful ground for the Gospel seed — men and women who had 
seen the futility of their national beliefs, and instead of swing- 
ing off into blank atheism like a great number of thoughtful 
heathen, had turned with sympathy to the beliefs, though not 
to the laws of ritual, of Judaism. Associated as he was with 
Herod's court, he assuredly knew of the healing of the noble- 
man's son (John 4 : 50) by Jesus from a distance, and prob- 
ably he had not expected that Jesus would actually come to his 
house. When he learned that he was approaching, he gave 

67 



68 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

evidence both of faith and of humility — leading character- 
istics of the members of the kingdom (Matt. 8:8). I am 
not worthy, . . . say the word and my servant shall be healed. 
And the figure with which he illustrated his faith showed that 
it was thoroughl}^ intelligent — he himself could control certain 
events at a distance by a word of command ; how much more 
had Jesus control over the invisible forces of disease. 

One of the commonest anticipations of the Messianic king- 
dom was of a great feast where all Israel would sit down with 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with no Grentile admitted. 
And Gentiles were to be cast into Gehenna the place of dark- 
ness. The faith of this centurion showed how possible it was 
that the Gentiles should come into the kingdom, while Israel, 
the natural sons of the kingdom, failed of their birthi'ight and 
were cast out. 

Soon after this Jesus set out upon a second tour through 
Galilee. It was like the first one, which he took immediately 
after the call of the first four disciples (Chapter X) , but with 
a difference ; then he was comparatively unknown — now his 
fame had spread everywhere abroad ; then he was received with 
universal enthusiasm — now, though the enthusiasm was no 
less, there was dark opposition in the hearts of the Jewish 
authorities ; then the Gospel was proclaimed that the kingdom 
of God was at hand — now that kingdom had been organ- 
ized, its law given, and its members described; then he was 
attended only by a few, his chosen ones — now, in addition to 
the Twelve, a great multitude (Luke 7:11) followed him, some 
of whom had avowedly taken upon themselves to minister of 
their substance to the wants of Jesus and the Twelve. 

Their first halt seems to have been Nain " the Fair," a 
village about twenty-five miles southwest of Capernaum, 
between historic Endor and Shunem, on a hill slope looking 
over the broad plain of Esdraelon. It was evening, the hour 
for interments, and just before reaching the town they met a 
funeral procession. First came the mother of. the dead, then 



The Second Preaching Tour. 69 

an open wicker casket carried by several bearers, then tlie 
hired mourners, and lastly, much people of the city, for it was 
the duty of every one, however engaged, to rise up and join 
a funeral procession. According to custom, Jesus and his 
company would have stood reverently on one side to allow the 
mourners and the bier to pass, and then have fallen in with the 
procession. Instead of that, he spoke compassionately to the 
mother, Be not weeping! and touched the open coffin. To 
touch it was to contract defilement ; no one would do it except 
in case of necessity. But the Lord of life had no fear of 
defilement ; with one word of command he recalled the dead to 
life. The pious mourners felt not only aw^e at this wonderful 
event, but joy, because thus God had visited his people. But to 
those who believed on him its meaning was that Jesus, their 
Lord and Master, had power over the unseen forces, not of 
disease only, but of death — that he was the Lord of life. 

The fame of this miracle reached the Baptist in his prison in 
the lonely fortress of Machserus, in the rocky fastnesses beyond 
the Dead Sea. Here, for about half a year, that free son of 
the wilderness had been languishing. No wonder that the clear 
eye of his soul had become dimmed, if not with an awful 
doubt, at least with an urgent impatience. But even so, to 
none but Jesus would he appeal. Those of his disciples who 
still remained faithful were permitted to visit him in his prison ; 
two of them he sent to Jesus with the question, Art Thou the 
Coming One, or do we wait /or another? 

The Jews did not often call the Messiah the Coming One, but 
they did so designate the Messianic kingdom, and the question 
evidently meant, Art Thou He who shall inaugurate that king- 
dom? So in answer Jesus did some of the acts that, according 
to prophecy (Isaiah 61 : 1 ; 35 : 5), characterized that kingdom, 
sending a report of these acts to John b;y way of answer, 
adding a new beatitude, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be 
scandalized (find occasion of stumbling) in Me, 

How tender Jesus was of his forerunner's reputation is seen 



70 ' The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

by his beginning at once to remind those about him of their 
former great enthusiasm for John, adding those words of 
highest encomium, Among them that are horn of women there is 
none greater than John, for with him began the fulfilment of 
long ages of prophecy, the preparation of the way of salva- 
tion. Here, again, Jesus emphatically declares his own Mes- 
siahship, not only by his message to John, but by clearly 
telling his hearers that (to them who would receive it) John 
was actually the Elijah prophesied of by Malachi (4:5). 
How incalculable are the privileges of the kingdom is shown 
from the words that follow : He that is but little in the kingdom 
of God is greater than he. The people and the publicans who 
had been prepared by the baptism of John were able to accept 
this teaching, but the Pharisees and the lawyers.^ in whom no 
such preparatory work had been wrought, would not receive it, 
but rejected for themselves the counsel of God. Their incon- 
sistency was exposed by Jesus in a few scathing words (Luke 
7:31-35). 

We do not know in what part of this second tour the mes- 
sengers from John had found Jesus, nor in what town it was 
that the Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him. This Phari- 
see was certainly not one of those who were plotting against 
Jesus. His negligence of the usual courtesies was not due to 
intentional rudeness, but simply to carelessness ; he was one 
who cared little for punctilio. 

Such feasts as these were always held with open doors, and 
there was always a group of lookers-on. It was not difficult 
for the repentant sinful woman to come in with her alabastron 
of precious ointment. She had meant only to show Jesus 
honor by pouring the ointment on his feet as he reclined upon 
the couch with his unsandaled feet extended away from the 
table; but when she saw him, repentance unloosed the flood- 
gate pf her tears. It was to Simon's unspoken thought that 
Jesus ajiswered with his parable of the two debtors. The 
meaning of the little parable was plain. Neither debtor could 



The Second Preaching Tour. 71 

pay ; both were in precisely the same condition, though one 
owed much and one little ; both were freely forgiven. But she 
who felt the burden of her many sins loved much because she 
was much forgiven ; one who felt little need of forgiveness — 
and Simon recognized himself here — would naturally love 
little. Simon had not a word of answer. The other guests 
began to question how he could forgive sin. Jesus did not 
explain ; he simply bade the woman go in peace, her faith 
having saved her. We shall never know who she was ; she 
was certainly not Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39), nor Mary 
of Magdala (8:2), but she holds the beautiful place of being 
the very first, so far as we are told, who came to Jesus simply 
for forgiveness, with no disease to be healed, no friend to be 
restored, no danger to be averted. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A DAY OF TEACHING BY THE SEA OF GALILEE. 

Matt. 12 : 22—13 : 53 ; Mark 3 : 19b— 4 : 34 ; Luke 8 : 4-21 ; 11 : 14-36. 

ON his coming home (Mark 3 : 19b, margin) from his second 
preaching tour through Galilee, Jesus found himself more 
popular than ever, the thronging multitudes giving him no time 
even to eat bread (vs. 20). Some of his friends (there is no 
hint that they are of his immediate family ; they were probably 
of those who devoted themselves to looking after his welfare) 
undertook to check this intense activity which seemed to them 
more than human nature could endure, seeing in it even a token 
that his enthusiasm had already outrun his self-mastery.. 

The unfriendly scribes (Mark 3 : 22) and Pharisees (Matt. 
12 : 24) seized upon the suggestion. Having failed to convict 
him of blasphemy (Mark 2 : 7) or of any breach of the Mosaic 
law (3 : 2ff, etc.), they now attacked his methods and motives. 
Among the cures performed at this time was that of a blind, 
deaf, and dumb demoniac ; they at once exclaimed that Jesus 
was himself possessed by the archdemon, Beelzebul (using the 
name of a Phoenician divinity as an equivalent for Satan) , by 
whose power he cast out demons. Jesus replied to this " truly 
diabolical accusation " with a masterpiece of logic, showing 
unanswerably the impossibility of Satan so turniug against 
himself, and then shifted the attack from himself to them. 
The Jews were much given to exorcism (Acts 13 : 6 ; 19 : 13, 
14) ; the "sons" (disciples) of the rabbis claimed to have 
this power ; did they also cast out demons by the aid of Satan ? 
No ; for their own sakes it were better for them to admit 
that it was b}^ the Spirit of God that he cast out demons, for 
so would follow the conclusion that the kingdom of God 

72 



A I>ay of Teaching hy the Sea of Galilee. 73 

had come to them ; that Satan, the arch enemy, was being 
despoiled. 

The argument was unanswerable ; more than that, it led 
directly to the conclusion that in thus insulting Jesus they had 
insulted not him, but the Holy Spirit, to insult whom is in the 
nature of things to commit an eternal sin, since it is a deliber- 
ate refusal of the eternal blessing. 

In the midst of his fiery rebuke the opportunity occurred to 
show how truly he was on the side, not of Satan, but of God. 
His mother and brethren stood outside of the thronging multi- 
tude, desiring to see him. It is an utter misconception, both of 
Jesus' character and of the circumstances, to see in his words 
(Mark 3 : 33-35) any rebuke of his mother or of his brothers ; 
they were not present. Luke expressly says they could not 
come at him for the crowd, and he would certainly not offer 
them a gratuitous insult. Nothing in the record so much as 
hints that he did not at once obey the summons and go out to 
them. But before going he seizes (as his custom is) the oppor- 
tunity to teach a truth. "You all know," he virtually says, 
" how dear are family ties to me, how much I love my mother 
and brethren ! But these disciples of mine, and all who do the 
will of God, are dear to me as brother and sister and mother." 

At this period of Jesus' career, he began to teach by a new 
method — that of parable. Parabolic teaching was and is 
common in the East ; but no teacher of any age or any coun- 
try has at all equaled our Lord in the use of this method. 

Briefly, a parable is a " narrative expressly imagined for the 
purpose of representing a religious truth in a pictorial figure." 
The parable differs from a fable in that it contaius nothing 
grotesque and nothing contrary to nature ; from an allegory in 
that the truth it teaches is actually represented, not merely 
illustrated. '' I am the Good Shepherd" is not a parable, but 
an allegory. "A sower went forth to sow," and all that 
follows, has no allegorical meaning ; it does not illustrate, it 



74 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

elucidates. A parable differs from an allegory in this, that it 
aims to teach only a single important truth, to which all the 
details refer so far as they have any meaning ; to try to find 
minor truths in the minor details is to misapprehend the nature 
of a parable. Hence it continually occurs that we find the 
parables of Christ coming in pairs, each teaching a truth 
complementary to the other. 

Jesus began now to teach in parables because the time had 
come to advance from elementary teaching to the deeper truths 
of the kingdom. These truths were so new and difficult that 
if they had been clothed in ordinary language they would have 
been forgotten before the minds of the hearers had had time 
to take them in ; humanly speaking, it would have been 
impossible that they should have been preserved and handed 
down to the Church had they not been clothed in a form which 
made it possible to remember not only their general features, 
but their minute relations. 

There were other reasons for the adoption of this form just 
at this time. The multitudes who followed Jesus were at- 
tracted by many different motives ; it was time that a sifting 
process began. But here we must be careful not to misappre- 
hend Christ's purpose. The disciples, on hearing the first of 
his parables, that of the sower, asked him the same question 
we are now asking — why he taught in parables (Matt. 13 : 10) . 
And he answered that the parable was a veil of truth, not to 
repel, but to attract : if they could see (vs. 13) what he meant, 
they would not perceive ; if they could hear, they would not 
understand ; but under this half concealment, the truth would 
find its way to then* intelligence, and gradually win its own 
acceptance. The sifting process was not to winnow out those 
who followed him from selfish or false motives, but to win 
them to follow him from true motives. 

Yet there was also a prohibitory side to this form of teach- 
ing in the nature of those who heard. There were those whose 
hearts were waxed gross and whose eyes were deliberately self- 



A Bay of Teaching hy the Sea of Cralilee. 75 

closed (vss. 14, 15). The penalty of such sin is more sin; 
the power of seeing the beauty of spiritual things gradually 
becomes lost. And it was not in wrath, but in mercy, that 
Christ's teachings were henceforth such as these could not 
understand. 

The eight parables with which Jesus opened this new method 
of teaching (Matt. 13 : 1-50 ; Mark 4 : 26-29) are designed to 
throw up into higher relief than in his earlier teaching the 
nature and progress of the kingdom of God, and its relations 
to various classes of men. 

The parable of the sower shows the different reception given 
to the word of the kingdom by different classes of people, and 
that the establishment of the kingdom does not depend alone 
upon a work of divine power, as the rabbis taught, but that it 
requires also the free response of man. A parable comple- 
mentary to this is given by Mark (4 : 26-29). The good seed 
was sown on good ground by human agency, and it brought 
forth fruit, being received into good and honest hearts ; but the 
fruit-bearing was not, like the receiving, an act of human voli- 
tion — the sower has cast the seed, the prepared heart has 
received it, but while the sower sleeps and wakes it grows he 
knows not how, and is carried through all its stages of develop- 
ment by a power unknown to him. 

The parable of the tares shows true and false Christianity 
existing in the kingdom side by side, and not distinguishable 
until the end, because the evil bears the appearance of the 
good. It was evidently given to reassure the Apostles and 
true disciples when they should see unworthy members in their 
own circle, as they only too speedily did, in Judas, and to teach 
them the proper line of conduct in such a case ; "let both 
grow together until the harvest." 

The complementary parable of the dragnet fixes the mind on 
the end of things, the judgment day, with the lesson that his 
disciples are to so live as to abide the sifting of that day. 

Another pair of complementary parables were spoken to the 



76 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

multitude, the mustard seed and the leaven. Both exhibit the 
growth of the kingdom from small beginnings, but the former 
treats it extensively, the latter intensively; the mustard seed, 
becoming a tree in whose branches the birds come to lodge, 
shows how the kingdom, though small indeed in empire over 
the heart of man at that time, was yet to spread abroad over 
the world ; the leaven in the meal shows its gradual, impercepti- 
ble, but unmistakable transforming influence upon character, 
both of the individual and the community. 

Later, when withdrawn to the house, Jesus told to his imme- 
diate followers another pair of complementary parables, showing 
the incomparable value of the kingdom and of citizenship in it. 
It is like treasure hid in a field, discovered accidentally, but 
when found awakening a trembling eagerness to secure it at all 
sacrifice ; or it is like a goodly pearl, found after long search 
by one who has made the search the business of his life, like 
the earnest seekers after truth, who when they find it hold all 
things else as of no worth beside it. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

A DAY OF MIRACLES BY THE SEA OF GALILEE. 

Matt. 8 : 23-34 ; 9 : 18-34 ; Mark 4 : 35—5 : 43 ; Luke 8 : 22-56. 

A FEW times in the Gospel history the story of an entire 
day is given ; standing out from a brief summary 
covering long periods of time. The Sabbath in Capernaum 
was one of these (Chapter XI) ; the da}^ of teaching which we 
studied for our last lesson was one, and to-day we have a day 
of miracles. Evidently these days are given us as representa- 
tive of Jesus' daily life, showing us that his days were usually 
as full of activity, of beneficence, as these. 

The sun was gone down, and a new day was therefore begun, 
when Jesus, with his disciples, set out to cross the lake in search 
of quiet and repose. 

Before the boat had gone far, a terrific squall came up. All 
lakes are liable to sudden squalls, but this one, lying in a 
deep, warm valley, nearly seven hundred feet below the sea, 
shut in by hills, deeply furrowed with ravines, down which 
the wind rushes madly from snowy Lebanon in the north, 
is subject to storms of unusual violence, amounting to hurri- 
canes. There were at least four experienced sailors in this 
little bark, but even they gave themselves up for lost. With 
one accord the disciples rusbed to Jesus, who was asleep in 
the stern, crying, " Master, Master, we perish ! " 

Jesus heard the cry of despair and answered it with an appeal 
to their faith. This ought to have been enough to quiet them ; 
but their faith was unequal to the strain ; therefore he spoke to 
the elements and they obeyed him, and the storm became a 
calm. 

We need not wonder that the disciples asked with awe, Who, 

77 



78 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

then, is this? We are used to the thought that our Saviour is 
lord over the powers of nature, but they had not before dreamed 
of such a thing. This was not one of the attributes of the 
Messiah, as they understood them. 

A more familiar instance of his power was given immedi- 
ately on their landing in the country of the Gerasenes, on the 
eastern shore of the lake — a country populated partly by Jews 
and partly by Syrians and wandering tribes, with occasional 
towns, mainly of Greeks and Syrians, federated in " the ten- 
city alliance" (Decapolis, Matt. 4:25). These cities were 
somewhat widely scattered, and none of them was close on the 
lake. But no sooner had Jesus and his disciples landed 
than they were met by a wild figure, a raving maniac, naked 
and streaming with blood, and possessed of a tremendous 
strength in the paroxysms of his malady. 

We have seen that it is not easy to understand precisely what 
is meant by demoniac possession. There is no suggestion 
that the demonized were peculiarly sinful ; Jesus never asked 
for faith as a condition of healing them, and he seemed to have 
especially welcomed every opportunity to heal them. In this 
perhaps is a clew. From the very beginning of even the Bap- 
tist's mission, sin is shown to be that which hinders the coming 
of the kingdom, and sin, we know, is " want of conformity to 
the, will of God." Now, without giving way to open sin, or to 
any form of sensual indulgence, it is entirely conceivable that 
men may be utterly opposed to the will of God, entirely bent on 
having their own will. Such a state of mind, or rather, of the 
affections, is the extreme opposite of the spirit of our Lord — 
" I delight to do thy will." Such an opposition of the human 
will to God's will naturally — perhaps necessarily — opens the 
door of the heart to evil influences, just as harmony with the 
divine will opens it to the Holy Spirit. 

If this is so, then there must always, in all ages, be demon- 
ized men — men outwardly good or openly bad, but in either 
case opposed to the will of God, though the condition may not 



A Day of Miracles hy the Sea of Galilee, 79 

always be evident to others. But it seems not unnatural that 
while Christ was upon earth this condition should make itself 
evidently manifest, simply because he was evidently manifested. 
And if that was the case, he would naturally desire especially 
to heal such ; for thereby he would not only show that he was 
come to destroy that which so peculiarly hindered the coming 
of the kingdom, but by such miracles he would plainly witness, 
in a way and to a degree possible by no other miracle, to the 
nature of his Messianic calling — that he came to break down 
the power of sin and bring the minds of men into harmony 
with the will of God. 

The chief point of difficulty in the healing of the Gerasene 
demoniac is in Christ's permitting the devils to enter the swine 
and destroy them. We may observe, however, that this man 
was so entirely dominated by the demons (actually identifying 
himself with them ; Luke 8 : 30) , that it may have been desir- 
able, in order to convince him of his cure, that he should see 
some proof that the dreadful power was gone out of him ; and 
it may also have been necessary to show him the terrible malev- 
olence of evil spirits. As to why Jesus permitted so much 
property to be destroyed, we might as well ask the same ques- 
tion after every cyclone, or tornado, or great fire. God has 
the " right of eminent domain" ; the salvation of a single soul 
is worth any amount of property in the sight of God, and of 
men, too, in proportion as they have the Spirit of God. The 
argument commonly offered in justification of this act that it 
was contrary to the Mosaic law for Jews to use swine flesh has 
no force. There is no reason to suppose that these swine were 
the property of Jews, and if they were, it was not our Lord's 
way to question the lawfulness of any tenure of property. 

Jesus departed from his usual practice in bidding the man 
talk freely of his cure. The reason is not far to seek. No 
one knew Jesus or cared for the good tidings of salvation in this 
district ; the man was made the first missionary ; and with good 
effect, for though now the Gerasenes, superstitiously afraid of 



80 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

his power or distressed by the loss of so much property, urged 
his departure, afterward Christ was welcomed here (Mark 7: 
31-37). 

On their return to Capernaum in the morning, Jesus and his 
disciples were met by a great number of people, among them a 
ruler of the synagogue, begging Jesus to heal his daughter 
who was at the point of death. As our Lord had often 
preached in the synagogue, Ja'irus must have known him and 
his works of healing; it is possible, even, that he was one of 
the elders who interceded with Jesus for the healing of the 
centurion's servant; if so, his faith and apprehension of the 
character of Jesus w^ere far less than those of the centurion. 
Perhaps the very urgency of his love for his child made him 
vreak in faith. 

On the way to Jairus' house a woman, who for ^^ears had 
suffered from a disease which made all who touched her cere- 
monially unclean, came up behind Jesus and touched his gar- 
ment, believing that this would sujQSce for her cure. It did; 
although her act spoke m.uch of superstition Jesus commended 
her faith as in fact that which had gained her healing. " The 
religious value of faith is wholly independent of the more or 
less correct conception of divine things which is united 
with it." 

Before their arrival at Jai'rus' house the little girl had died. 
The beautiful story is familiar — the hired mourners beating 
their breasts and wailing ; the despair of the father checked 
by the Lord's kind word, i^ear not^ only believe; the putting out 
of all unsympathetic, mocking spirits ; the quiet entrance of 
six persons in the death chamber — the parents, three disciples 
and Jesus — and the gentle words of power, Little maid, arise! 
There can be no doubt that the child was actually dead ; unless 
Jesus were omniscient he would have been less qualified than 
those in the house to judge of her true condition. The secrecy 
of the miracle was partly for the child's sake, but also for the 
sake of others. We cannot think that it would be a merciful 



A Day of Miracles hy the Sea of Gralilee. 81 

thing to restore all dead persons to their weeping friends, and 
we do not hear of the dead being brought to Jesus to be 
restored, as would most certainly have been the case were this 
miracle widely known. It was not his intention to raise to life 
any more persons than sufficed to show unmistakably his power 
over death. 

Immediately on leaving the house of Jairus, Jesus healed two 
blind men. It is a striking illustration of his perfect sympathy 
that in every case of blindness Jesus aids the consciousness of 
the afflicted ones by some appeal to the sense of touch. One 
blind man he takes by the hand and leads away ; invariably he 
touches their eyes. So with the deaf man (Mark 7 : 33, 34) , we 
shall find him making precisely the signs that would be made to 
a deaf mute to-day if it were desired to connect his healing 
with the idea of a person. 

The activities of this busy day were concluded, so far as we 
know, by the healing of a dumb demoniac. Here again the 
Pharisees repeated their senseless and blasphemous accusation. 
But Jesus had refuted that once for all ; he takes no notice of 
it here. 



Chapter xviil. 

THE THIRD PREACHING TOUR. 

Matt. 9 : 35—11 ; 1 ; 13 : 54—14 : 12 ; Mark 6 : 1-29 ; Luke 9 : 1-9. 

IT was very much according to human nature that the people 
of Nazareth should have found it hard on Jesus' return 
from his first absence from home (Chapter IX) to think of their 
fellow-townsman as the Messiah. Their rejection of him on 
that occasion showed them to be dull-minded and brutal, but 
it did not perhaps argue them so guilty as appears to us who 
are familiar with the recorded facts with regard to Jesus' Mes- 
siahship. At all events, our Lord thought it was due them to 
give them one more opportunity. It was impossible that his 
fellow-townsmen should not now be aware of many of his 
deeds as well as of his enormous popularity and numerous 
adherents ; he would now give them one more opportunity to 
acknowledge him. His sisters were living in Nazareth (Mark 
6:3), having probably married before the removal of Jesus 
with his mother and brothers to Capernaum (John 2 : 12) ; it 
is possible that to visit them was one of his motives in going 
to Nazareth. 

It is rather significant that we are told (Mark 6:1) that Ids 
disciples follow him to Nazareth. When last we heard of them, 
nine of the Twelve had been left outside the door of Jai'rus' 
house. It seems probable that Jesus observed some secrecy 
in leaving the house of Jairus. Perhaps he went '' by the way 
of the roofs," as he afterwards counseled his disciples to do 
at the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. 24 : 17). At all events, 
when he reached Nazareth he had so strong a bodyguard that 
anything like the violence offered him on his former visit (Luke 
4 : 29) was impossible. 

82 



The Third Preaching Tour. 83 

We are not told what it was that he said in the synagogue 
(Mark 6:2), but we see that the very objections made by the 
people of Nazareth — that they knew all about him and his 
upbringing and knew that he had had no superior advantages 
— were in fact proof that he had received a special endowment. 

A celebrated scholar translates into French the last clause 
of verse 3 as, And he was for them only a subject of criticism. 
He was baffled, not by unbelief, but by a sneering, faultfinding 
spirit. There is, then, we learn from this incident, a limit to 
" the wideness of God's mercy " ; it is not in intellectual blind- 
ness, not in the lack of spiritual apprehensiou, not even in 
man's sinful nature or conduct, but in his will ; that being per- 
verse, there is no hope. Here in Nazareth Jesus did just 
miracles enough to show that neither his power nor his compas- 
sion had failed, and then left them to themselves. 

From Nazareth Jesus went about as he had twice before 
done (Chapters X and XV) on a preaching tour through the 
close clustering towns and villages of Galilee (Josephus says 
there were no less than 240) . He saw that a crisis in his own 
life was approaching ; the hostility of the Pharisees and the 
increasing enthusiasm of the multitudes would inevitably con- 
spire together for this. This fact, as well as the condition of 
the people (Matt. 9:36), spiritually starved by their rabbis, 
who gave them stones for bread, led Jesus to take a step also 
called for by the needs of the training of the Twelve ; he began 
to send them forth by two and tioo (Mark 6:7), as laborers in 
that harvest which showed itself to be so plenteous. 

The commission of the Twelve on this occasion is given by 
all three Synoptists, but that of Matthew is very much longer 
and more comprehensive than those of Mark and Luke. A 
careful comparison, however, shows that all these are substan- 
tially alike to a certain point (Matt 10 : 5-15 ; Mark 6 : 7-11 ; 
Luke 9:1-5). What follows in Matthew treats of trials 
(vss. 17-23) to which certainly the Apostles were not now ex- 
posed, but which were subsequently their lot, giving reassur- 



84 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

ances (vss. 24-32) and warnings (vss. 33-38) not yet needed and 
which would hardly have been appreciated by the Apostles at the 
time at which we have now arrived. Still, it was entirely 
appropriate for Matthew to follow here his usual plan of 
gathering together all that bears upon one idea. All that is 
here is fundamental to the idea of the Christian Apostolate, 
and it was all realized in the end. 

At this time, we find, the field of the Apostles' labors was 
restricted to those lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 
10 : 6) whose neglected and prostrated condition had so moved 
our Lord's compassion (9 : 36). Neither the Samaritans nor the 
Gentiles were to have any part in their ministry. This was, 
of course, a temporary restriction (28 : 19), but it was essen- 
tial so long as their Lord was on e^trth, because the nature of 
his Messiahship limited his personal labors to his own people, 
and the Apostles were now simple helpers in his present work. 
As to their preaching, it also was restricted. 

They were to announce that the kingdom had come (10 : 7) 
and call men to repent (Mark 6: 12), but they were not to 
announce the Messiah. Though entirely convinced that Jesus 
was the Messiah, they still, and until after the Ascension, 
entirely misunderstood the character of his Messiahship, and 
any teaching of theirs on this head must have been misleading. 
Nor were they to preach in the synagogues as Jesus did. For 
this they were not competent ; their preaching was to be as 
they went (Matt. 10 : 7) from house to house. They were to 
seek out a well-disposed household (vs. 11) as a nucleus for 
their work. 

It is important to notice that Jesus gave them directions as 
to their behavior — the courtesy, gentleness, wisdom (vss. 12, 
16) that became the servants of God. It is also important to 
observe that his direction to make no provision for the neces- 
sities of the journey, while in principle of permanent obliga- 
tion, was in detail applicable only to the time then present. 
They were going through a friendly country ; to entertain 



The Third Preaching Tour. ' 85 

strangers was a duty, usually practiced with delight, and cer- 
tain to be so in thek case, as disciples and representatives of 
One so enthusiastically admired as Jesus was at this period. 
Later (Luke 22:35, 36) they received different orders. 

They were not to force their mission upon any one ; this was 
in part a temporary restriction, due, like the others, to their 
immaturity as religious teachers. But in part their work was 
conditioned, as with their Lord, by willingness to receive on the 
part of those who heard. The limit of the blessing, we here 
learn again, is in the will of man. The whole Gospel story 
hardly contains a more awful teaching. Though the latter 
verses of Matthew (10 : 39-42) are not given by Mark and 
Luke, they appear to be a part of this first commission. Verse 
39 was not spoken on this occasion only ; it is a favorite 
thought with Jesus. We find it six times in the Gospels, 
attributed to four different occasions (Matt. 16 : 25 ; Luke 
17:33; John 12:25). 

Having given them their commission, Jesus sent the Apostles 
forth by two and two, doubtless in the order given in Matt. 
10 : 2-4. Probably they made but brief trips, returning often 
to Jesus, wherever he might be ; he himself seems to have 
been occupied in breaking fresh ground (Matt. 11 : 1), which 
probably they afterward entered upon. 

Their mission increased the fame of Jesus. Herod, the 
tetrarch, heard of all that ivas done (Luke 9 : 7) immediately 
on his return from his distant castle of Machserus, where he 
had been keeping his birthday. It is not surprising that he 
was much perplexed, for his conscience was disturbed. John 
the Baptist had long been confined in " the hot darkness" of 
the dungeon keep of Machserus. Herod, who (Josephus says) 
believed that John had political views, often called him to his 
audience and heard him gladly (Mark 6 : 20), that is, with the 
curious interest of one who enjoys a superficial excitement; 
notwithstanding the fact that John had boldly denounced his 
incestuous marriage with his brother's wife, Herodias — the 



86 The lAfe of the Lord Jesus. 

wife, not of the Tetrarch Philip, but of another brother of that 
name, who was living as a private man of wealth in Jerusa- 
lem. The story of how the wicked and unscrupulous woman 
compassed the prophet's death is both familiar and easy to 
comprehend ; but it is difficult for us to understand the process 
of mind by which Herod, a Sadducee, and therefore a mate- 
rialist (Acts 23 : 8), came to hold the curious belief that John, 
who in his lifetime did no miracle (John 10 : 41), " had grad- 
uated in another world," and therefore do these powers work in 
him (Mark 6:14). It was a morbid curiosity which made 
Herod desire to see Jesus, for whom he thus accounted (Luke 
9:9), and not a spiritual, or even intellectual yearning. And 
therefore Jesus did not now respond to his desire, nor when at 
last, on the dreadful day of his trial, he was brought before 
Herod, would he gratify his curiosity by so much as a word, 
far less by the miracle for which he hoped (Luke 23 : 8, 9). 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE CRISIS AT CAPERNAUM. 

Matt. 14 : 13—15 : 20 ; Mark 6 : 30—7 : 23 ; Luke 9 : 10-17 ; 
John, chap. 6. 

THE death of the Baptist sth-red the people to the very 
depths. He had announced the Messianic kingdom, 
had proclaimed Jesus as him for whom the nation was looking, 
and Herod had silenced his voice by murder. The whole 
people felt that the crisis had come. Would. Jesus assert 
himself, and lead the people in the founding of the long- 
anticipated new order? They were more than ready for a 
great uprising if he would say the word. At a moment like 
this the Pharisees could only bide their time and see how things 
would turn. 

Jesus, returning to Capernaum, was met by the disciples of 
John, who in the first bewilderment of grief and horror turned 
instinctively to him. Soon the dreadful news reached the 
Twelve, and they, too, hastened to Jesus. 

In their train came eagerly expectant multitudes to swell the 
throng already gathered round him. It was a time of year 
when all the population was, so to speak, in a fluid state — the 
time just preceding the Passover — and this certainly added to 
the number of Christ's followers. He was the " idol of the 
hour " ; never, apparently, had the time been so nearly ripe for 
any movement which he might choose to inaugurate. The 
people were expecting a decisive step from him, and the dis- 
ciples shared, to a certain extent, their expectation. 

Partly because the thronging and eagerly expectant crowd 
left them no leisure so much as to eat (Mark 6:31), and partly 
because they all needed rest and leisure to confer one with 

87 



88 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

another ; partly, also, because of his own profound sadness in 
view of the Baptist's death, Jesus called his disciples to go 
away with him to an unpeopled spot across the head of the 
Lake. The place was near the city of Bethsaida Julias, and, 
we may observe, belonged to the dominion, not of Herod, but 
of Philip, though it seems improbable that this fact influenced 
Jesus. His motive was not to escape from any possible 
machinations of Herod, but to secure leisure and quiet. 

They went by boat, as was their custom in such cases. The 
multitude perceived the dkection taken by the boat, saw that 
the unfavorable wind gave them good hope of arriving in time, 
and hastened by land to that wide, uninhabited plain, not desert 
in our sense of the word (Matt. 14 : 15, compare Mark 6 : 39 ; 
John 6:10) which Jesus had chosen for his retreat. The only 
feeling of Jesus at this rude intrusion upon his privacy was 
compassion (Matt. 14:14). If at any former time his heart 
had gone out to them because they were as sheep not having a 
shepherd, much more so now when the <}risis was at hand that 
would so sternly sift them. And so he welcomed them, and 
after healing all who had need of healing, he followed up this 
act of mercy, as was his wont, by teaching them many things. 
At the close of the day he miraculously fed the great multitude 
— five thousand men, besides women and children — with five 
loaves and two fishes, which happened to be all the Apostles' 
store. 

Why Jesus did thus is a somewhat difficult question. We 
do not know that he ever performed a needless miracle, and 
this from the point of view of the people's necessities was 
needless. They were within easy reach of Bethsaida and other 
inhabited places (Luke 9 : 12), and with the abstemious habits 
that then prevailed, a single day's fast was no great hardship. 
The case was entirely different at a later date, when the four 
thousand were fed in the borders of Decapolis (Mark 7 : 31 ; 
8 : 2, 4). The explanation appears to be in the circumstances, 
in the fact that this was a moment of crisis. This great 



The Crisis at Capernaum. 89 

miscellaneous multitude needed sifting, if only for their own 
sake ; it would have been unmerciful to let so many follow him 
from wrong motives, and we shall see that the sifting process 
which began (probably) the next day (John 6 : QQ) was depend- 
ent on this miracle, which gave him the right to use the testing 
words of verse 26. It was also a symbolical miracle, suggested, 
no doubt (vs. 4), by the approach of the Passover. 

Its immediate effect, however, was to increase the enthusiasm 
to the highest pitch. Remembering that, as the rabbis taught, 
the Messiah was to repeat the miracles of Moses, they were 
now convinced that Jesus was he, and so little did they under- 
stand his nature and the character of his kingdom, that they 
were ready to take him by force and make him a King. The 
disciples were so much in sympathy with this ill-advised 
purpose, that Jesus was obliged to use constraint to send them 
away (Matt. 14 : 22) before he could calm and disperse the 
multitude. 

We can understand why after this most trying scene he 
departed into the mountain to pray (Mark 6:46), "rehears- 
ing the agony in Gethsemiane." He must have seen that this 
which others deemed an hour of triumph was the beginning of 
the end. Already he must have felt the weight of the cross 
and the sharpness of the crown of thorns. After a year and 
a half of self-giving, of most generous self-revelation, to be 
misunderstood thus ! 

In the intensity of prayer it had begun to draw toward 
morning (Matt. 14 : 25) before he looked seaward (Mark 6 : 
48) , and perceived that his disciples were struggling with a head 
wind which made sailing impossible, and against which they 
could barely hold their own by strenuous labor at the oar. 
Seeing him coming toward them over the water, the impetuous 
Peter, not yet perhaps recovered from the strong excitement 
of the miracle, put him to a test (Matt. 14 : 28) which proved 
rather to be a test of himself. He did not perish, but he did 
receive a lesson, one which, with many others, conspired to 



90 , The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

make him the firm rock he finally became. And all in the boat 
gained a new view of Christ's nature, and worshiped him, 
saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God! 

They landed somewhere along the plain of Gennesaret, and 
at once the word went out and the sick were brought to be 
healed. At no time in the life of Jesus do we read of such an 
exuberance of miracle-working power in him. Never after 
this did the tide of popular enthusiasm run so high, never after 
this was his victory over suffering so outwardly manifest. For 
this was the last time. From this day the character of his work 
was changed. He might often again perform a single miracle 
in special cases, he might once more in the half-heathen district 
beyond the lake heal many sick, but never again did he shed 
his power broadcast over the Galilean multitude. His work as 
the Great Physician closed that bright spring morning as he 
walked the lakeside, returning to Capernaum. 

There are some reasons for thinking that the " discourse on 
eating with unwashed hands " was spoken before that on the 
Bread of Life. Apparently it was on his approach to Caper- 
naum that those Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees who had been 
sent down to investigate him {the Jews of John 6) met him 
with a question which appears like asking him to define his 
policy once for all with regard to the traditional law (Matt. 
15:2). Jesus goes to the heart of the question by showing 
them that their traditional law was founded on a misconception 
of the nature of holiness. The aim of the tradition of the 
elders was not physical cleanliness, but ceremonial purity. It 
was a principle of separateness, founded on spiritual pride, 
which made it impossible for them to see the truth of human 
brotherhood or to perceive that the service of men was the 
service of God. No forms or ceremonies could make good the 
lack of such service, least of all when that lack contravened 
the explicit commands of God given in the Scriptures, which 
even the rabbis taught must not be contradicted by traditional 
law. To assume that a gift to the temple was more acceptable 



The Crisis at Capernaum. 91 

to God 'than the dutiful support of parents, for example, was 
utterly to mistake the divine character as revealed in the 
Mosaic books. 

It was so important that the conscience of the people should 
be loosed from the bonds of this merely external law, that he 
directed to the great multitude who followed him, and not 
merely to his questioners, his utterance of the cardinal principle 
of moral purity (vs. 11). To appreciate its revolutionary 
character we must know something of the enormous part the 
question of ceremonial cleanliness had in Jewish daily life. 
It is not to be wondered at that the disciples could not under- 
stand what seems to us self-evident (Matt. 15:15-20), and 
that the Pharisees stumbled (vs. 12) at a principle wHich 
knocked the foundations from under their teachings. 

Reaching Capernaum they were met by many of those whom 
they had left the evening before on the other side of the lake. 
Their eager question (John 6 : 25) gave Jesus the opportunity 
for that sifting process for which the time had now come. 
Their craving for the marvelous was no longer to be granted. 
They were looking for the great Messianic banquet which the 
rabbis foretold ; a different meat was that he gave — a meat 
that endures to everlasting life. The discourse of Jesus on 
the Bread of Life is too profound for summary treatment. 
Another year will afford an opportunity for the detailed study 
of this passage (John 6:26-65). It is enough here to say 
that in it the doctrine of faith is fundamentally expounded. 
Its historic importance lies in the effect it had upon the future 
attitude of the populace toward Christ. 

The latter part of this discourse (from verse 44), probably 
uttered in the synagogue, gave the deathblow to the political 
aspirations of the people. Not of "the Jews": they had 
long ceased to have such expectations of Jesus, and they had 
no further interest in the matter ; it was his disciples (not the 
Twelve) who found it a hard saying and could not receive the 
prophecy of his death and glorification. In bitter disappoint- 



92 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

ment they turned away from him in large numbers. The 
beginning of the end had come. 

Jesus fully recognized the trying nature of this test when he 
asked the Twelve, "Ye would not go away, would ye?" 
Their bubble, too, had burst (though to re-form itself again 
more than once, Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6). But they loved 
him ; they had their past experience of him as the basis of an 
indestructible faith. They believed now and were sure of 
what they had seen as in a flash on the lake the night before — 
that he was the Christ, the Son of the living Grod. 

There was one among them who, loving Jesus less because 
he loved himself more, could not so easily recover from the 
blow. To him Jesus offered the opportunity to withdraw from 
their fellowship (John 6 : 70) . If Judas had accepted it, he 
would have been spared an awful crime. But a lurking hope 
still bound him to Jesus. He would not yet admit that his 
self-seeking hopes were blasted. So "faith unfaithful kept 
him falsely true " for a while longer. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE WITHDRAWAL INTO NORTHERN GALILEE. 

Matt. 15 : 21—16 : 28 ; Mark 7 : 24—9 : 1 ; Luke 9 : 22-27. 

THE purpose of Jesus in going to tlie neighborhood of 
Bethsaida JuUas was only postponed by the importunity 
of the multitude in following him thither. Two reasons led 
him to desire to withdraw for a time into a real seclusion. He 
desired a period of quiet reflection ; and he wanted to com- 
plete the education of his disciples. To have remained in 
Capernaum at this time would have been to precipitate a 
conflict with Herodians and Pharisees, and effectually put 
a stop to his work with them, while to have gone up to the 
Passover with the multitudes now" thronging thitherward 
would have been to precipitate the conflict with the hierarchy, 
and immediately bring about the catastrophe which actually 
occurred a year later. He therefore went away to the 
northwest. 

There seems little reason to doubt that he actually crossed 
the frontier into the Gentile country ; but even there he could 
not find the quiet he desired. A woman, a Gentile and a 
pagan, learned that this was he with whose fame all that coun- 
try had been ringing, the long-expected Messiah of the Jews. 
Her little daughter was possessed of a demon ; she had heard 
of his curing others thus afflicted, and she came and besought 
him to have mercy on her child, too. That she addressed 
Jesus as Son of David argues nothing for her spiritual enlight- 
enment or her faith ; all who knew anything of the Messiah of 
the Jews knew he was to be of David's line. 

It was not to test or strengthen her faith that Jesus at first 
appeared deaf to her call. It was an important fact that his 

93 



94 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

personal mission was exclusively to Israel. To have thrown 
wide open the door of blessing to the Gentiles would have been 
to alienate the Jewish hierarchy, and worse than this, it would 
have ruisled the future Apostles. Israel had been prepared 
both by the Law and the prophets for the reception of the 
truth ; the heathen had not been so prepared. Not that the 
Gentiles were to be excluded finally. By three miracles, the 
healing of the centurion's servant, of the Gerasene demoniac, 
and of the child of this woman, Jesus taught the first rudi- 
ments of the truth of the universality of his kingdom. 

We must not exaggerate the rebuff which Jesus gave to this 
woman ; least of all must we see any rudeness in the parable 
of the little dogs and the children. Let the children first he 
filled even implies that the turn of others would come at last ; 
in those days, as in these, the little dogs, the household pets, 
were only second to the children in the affections of the father 
of the household ; there is not the remotest allusion to the 
pariah dogs of Revelation 22 : 15. And that the woman felt 
no rebuff, but found in the Lord's words an appeal to faith, is 
evident. Her answer was not clever repartee, but a quick 
spiritual response to his parabolic teaching. What father, 
dividing the bread among his children, but lets fall some 
morsels for the little dogs, their playmates? Here she had 
a firm foothold for faith, a sure ground of conviction that 
he would do this thing which she asked of him. And so 
he did. 

Obviously there would be no more retirement for him in this 
neighborhood, and Jesus went further north, making a wide 
circuit by way of the boundary of the Sidon district and the 
passes of Lebanon, and so into the region east of the Upper 
Jordan. Decapolis at that time extended from Damascus to 
Philadelphia, a hundred miles north and south. Somewhere in 
this territory a deaf man was brought to him for healing. The 
external means which Jesus used were not in the least curative ; 
they were, as has already been shown (Chap. XVEI), simple 



The Withdrawal into Northern Galilee. 95 

aids to faith, like the touching of the blind, and, in part, like 
the permission that the devils might enter into the swine. 

The motive of Jesus in charging the restored man and his 
friends to say nothing of the cure, was that his privacy might 
be no farther interrupted. His charge was disobeyed. His 
fame spread throughout Decapolis ; once more crowds began to 
gather about him, until, as he reached the region east of the 
lake where the first missionary (Mark 5 : 19) had been sent to 
proclaim him, there were four thousand men gathered around 
him, hanging on his words with such intensity of interest that 
for three days all thought of personal comfort fell into the 
background. Out of compassion for the multitude Jesus at 
last performed a second miracle of multiplying food, feeding 
the great assemblage with seven loaves and a few small fishes. 

The accounts of Jesus' movements from this point are 
somewhat obscure. Neither Dalmanutha (Mark 8 : 10) nor 
Magadan (Matt. 15 : 39) is known to geographers. Some- 
where, probably on the western side of the lake, the Pharisees 
and Sadducees united in asking of him some unmistakable 
token of his Messiahship. The question showed no desire for 
more faith, but skepticism, or at best curiosity. The request 
was granted, though not as they desired. A twofold sign was 
given — that of the time, which they ought to have been able 
to read, understanding therefrom that the fullness of the time 
had come, and that of Jonah, who without miracle preached to 
a repentant people such as they should have been. 

Returning with his disciples to the eastern shore, he tested 
the depth of their spiritual apprehension. "Warning them to 
beware of mingling political aspirations with their Messianic 
hopes (the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, the mistake 
of the multitude and of themselves at a former time, John 6 : 
15), he finds their minds still dark; they are thinking, not of 
the kingdom but of meat and drink. 

Arriving at the scene of the first miracle of feeding, Beth- 
saida Julias (Mark 8 : 22, corap. Matt. 14:15), Jesus healed 



96 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

a blind man by a method precisely calculated, as with the deaf 
man, not to test his faith, but to help it. He was now on his 
way northward, to a place where in seclusion he could continue 
the education of his disciples. About eighteen miles north of 
Bethsaida, high up in the mountains of Lebanon, at the source 
of the Jordan, was the recently built Csesarea Philippi. Some- 
where near this place Jesus passed a considerable time in quiet, 
instructing his disciples and communing with G-od (Luke 9 : 18). 

The time had now come to tell them the dreadful truth of 
his future sufferings ; but before doing so, he prepared and 
strengthened them by inducing them to put into words their 
deepest convictions of him. He first asked them as to the 
popular belief — Who did the people say that the Son of Man 
was? The people, bewildered by his refusal to take the part 
which they assumed to be that of Messiah, had begun to think 
he must be one of the old prophets ; nothing less than a rein- 
carnation of the holiest lives in the nation's history could 
satisfy their sense of his excellence. But the disciples — Who 
did they say that he was? Simon, the ever ready, answered 
for all : Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God I 

It is impossible not to hear in Jesus' answer the thrill of 
exultaut joy : his teaching, his example, had not been thrown 
away ; they were ready now for a new lesson — for a first 
intimation that the subsequent career of their Master was not 
to be such as they anticipated. Hints of this had indeed been 
given (John 2:19; Matt. 9:15, etc.), but with no intention 
that the words should then be understood. Now it was not only 
safe, but essential that they should understand. 

It was too terrible for them to consent to ; yet it was neces- 
sary that Peter's horrified disclaimer should be put to them in 
its true light. Not for Peter to say of what God had willed, 
This shall not be unto Thee. He might not be aware of 
it, but this was a repetition of Satan's old temptation — urging 
Jesus to put his personal interest before the interest of the 
kingdom. 



The Withdraival into Northern Galilee. » 97 

The teachings that follow (Matt. 16 : 24-28) were given in 
some place near or in the city, to a large audience (Mark 8 : 
34; Luke 9:23). The condition of discipleship is not what 
the disciple wills but what Grod wills, even to the extent of 
self-sacrifice. Three reasons for bearing the cross are given : 
it is the way to a true life ; nothing in comparison with this true 
life is of any value, and he who imitates the self-sacrifice of 
Jesus shall share in his reward. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE TRA.NSFIGURATION, AND THE RETURN TO CAPERNAUM. 

Matt., Chs. 17, 18 ; Mark 9 : 2-50 ; Luke 9 : 28-50. 
\ X'r'E know that in the wilderness of temptation the 
VV tempter, vanquished, departed from Jesus, but only 
for a season (Luke 4:13). How often our Lord was called 
to pass through the ordeal of Satanic temptation we do not 
know, but apparently Peter's rebuke of his Master for per- 
mitting himself to think of suffering a violent death at the 
hands of the Jewish authorities (Matt. 16 : 22) was one of 
these times. Everything shows that Peter's remonstrance took 
deep hold upon Jesus — the sharp reproof with its dreadful 
suggestion (vs. 23), the immediately following discourse on 
the necessity of bearing the cross and losing the life, the 
forward look to the recompense awaiting, not his disciples only, 
but himself — all point to the fact that Jesus was shaken to 
the depths of his soul by Peter's suggestion. 

It was therefore for his own sake, no less than for theirs, 
that that mysterious event, the Transfiguration, occurred. The 
night of praj^er upon the mountain was, we can hardly doubt, 
a night of agony. His disciples had utterly failed to under- 
stand " the law of the cross." Shall we wonder if he him- 
self, who months later than this prayed in agony, "If it be 
possible let this cup pass," was at this earlier period bewildered 
by the dark suggestion that the clearly foreseen cross was a 
token that he was not the expected and promised One ? The 
Transfiguration gave a threefold witness which answered 
directly to this doubt, if it existed ; showing that the way of 



The Transfiguration^ and the Return to Caperjiaum, 99 

the cross was the true way of the Lord's anointed One. Fh'st, 
by his own glorification ; the glory which before all worlds he 
had had with the Father shone out through his mortal frame 
(Luke 9 : 29) ; second, by the appearance of two heavenly 
visitants, representative of all God's former leading of Israel 
by law and prophecy, to assure him that his coming death 
(vs. 31) was, in the upper world if not by his disciples, recog- 
nized as the way, not of defeat, but of glorification ; third, by 
the open approval of the Father (vs. 35). Henceforth he 
could go with unclouded vision to meet what lay before him. 
From this time he could set his face steadfastly toward Jeru- 
salem (vs. 51), though straight before him on the hill of 
Golgotha loomed the cross. This is the meaning of the 
Transfiguration of our Lord. 

For the disciples it had another meaning. Peter's utterance 
(vs. 33) shows how far he or any of them was from under- 
standing the teachings of Jesus about the kingdom. " Master, 
it is well (convenient) that we are here ; we will make three 
booths." This, he thought, is the blissful method of the 
Messianic kingdom. Not the way of the cross, not daily self- 
denial, not losing of the life (vss. 23, 24), but an immediate 
entrance of earth into communion with heaven, into the glory 
of the sons of God. But, alas, Peter has but to express this 
desire tliat heaven shall begin then and there, with no prepara- 
tory discipline of service, sorrow and pain, when the glory 
vanishes, and the very voice of God warns the disciples to 
hear Mm who for many months has been teaching them the 
way of the cross. 

The charge of Jesus to tell no man (Matt. 17:9) what they 
had seen, till after his resurrection, was given for the reason 
that prompted other similar charges ; it could not be under- 
stood, and would foster misconception. 

At the foot of the mountain they found the other disciples 
in the midst of an agitated throng — agitated not only because 
of the exceptionally pitiful case of the epileptic boy brought to 



100 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

them for healing, but also because they had been unable to do 
what they had often done before. Their failure to perform 
this cure was perhaps due to the forebodings awakened in their 
minds by their Master's recent teaching of the cross and a 
consequent temptation to forsake him ; but the utterance of 
Jesus, the tone of sharp rebuke an4 almost impatient dis- 
couragement, appears (Matt. 17 : 17) to have been called forth, 
not by their want of faith, but by that of those around him, 
especially the father (Mark 9:22). Jesus' answer, "If I 
can! nay, rather, if thou canst," is of the character of all 
his acts in performing cures — to arouse or foster faith in 
those who apply for help. It has the desired effect — the 
flickering spark is fanned to a bright flame (vs. 24), and then 
the child is healed. 

The retirement which Jesus had sought would no longer be 
possible after this cure, nor was it longer necessary. Jesus 
had received that of which he had himself been in need — the 
clear perception of the will of Grod, an unquestionable assur- 
ance of the favor of the Father. He had now only to go 
forward to meet his will in the confidence of that assurance, 
and he turned his face toward Jerusalem, by way of Galilee 
and his old home, Capernaum. 

Perhaps it was because, as we may remember (see Chapter 
XX), Jesus and his disciples had not gone to the Passover that 
year, that the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter on 
their return, with the question, " Doth not your Master pay the 
two drachmas ? " — the yearly temple tax, the ransom money 
(Ex. 30 : 13) for every soul. 

In his reply Jesus calls attention to the fact that it is not the 
children of a king who are taxed for the king's support. But 
Jesus did not claim for himself alone exemption from this tax, 
as if he were the only Son of God ; the children are all free, 
his disciples are all one with him, are sons of God as he is, are 
free as he is free. And since in the spirit of conciliation and 
meekness he will not assert this freedom, he will do two things : 



The Transfiguration^ and the -Return to Capernaum. 101 

he will show his lordship over the world's wealth, and he will 
expressly associate one of his Apostles with himself in his con- 
cession. The fish which is to provide the means will have in 
his mouth, not a didrachma, but a stater (four drachmas), 
enough for Peter and Jesus. 

On the way from Csesarea Philippi to Capernaum the disci- 
ples, some of them perhaps jealous of the three who had been 
chosen to accompany Jesus upon the mountain, had been dis- 
puting as to who should be greatest in the kingdom, which in 
spite of all Jesus' teachings they could not but think would 
soon be visibly established. Being now in Capernaum, Jesus 
referred to this dispute, giving the law of precedence in his 
kingdom — that he who did most for others should be the 
greatest — and the model of the member of the kingdom, the 
little child. Calling to his side one of those little ones whom 
we can often perceive in the background of the Gospel pictures, 
lovingly following the Lord, he taught that such a child repre- 
sented the spirit of the kingdom, thereby forever giving a 
peculiar sanctity and significance to childhood. To receive 
a little child in his name is to receive Jesus ; to lead a child 
astray or fail to help a child to do right is to show a spirit so 
contrary to that of the Master as to be in itself destructive. 

From the responsibility of him who leads another to sin to 
the duty of him who is sinned against the transition was 
natural, but Peter did not understand his Master's doctrine of 
forgiveness. How often, he asked, ought he to forgive an 
offending brother — seven times ? For the rabbis taught that 
no one need extend forgiveness more than three times. The 
answer of Jesus, "Until seventy times seven," obviously 
means that we are not to count up offences but be always in a 
forgiving mood. The parable by which he illustrated this 
truth teaches that disciples of Jesus who have been forgiven 
an infinite debt of sin should be ready, indeed, to forgive every 
one his brother from the heart. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

AN AUTUMN VISIT TO JERUSALEM. 

John, Chapters 7, 8. 

AS, owing to the enmity of the Sanhedrin (John 7 : 1), Jesus 
JI\. had gone up neither to the Passover nor to Pentecost, 
and as pious Jews considered it almost essential to attend at 
least one of the three great feasts every year, it was natural 
that his brethren should urge him to go to the Feast of Tab- 
ernacles (vs. 3). Jesus, however, who realized the danger 
which awaited him in Jerusalem, would not go up with the 
great caravan to this feast. He recognized the unwisdom of 
going up in the midst of a festive company, who might easily 
have been moved to try once more, as at the Passover season 
(see Chapter XIX), to force him into political prominence. 
He therefore remained in Capernaum until after the caravan 
had set forth, and then went up quietly by himself. 

Even after his arrival he did not at once make his appearance 
in the temple, and it is perhaps here that we may place tlie 
visit at Bethany recorded in Luke 10:38-42. When at last 
he did make his appearance, he taught with such convincing 
authority that the members of the Sanhedrin (John 7 : 15, 
comp. 13) marveled at his learning, since they knew that he had 
belonged to none of the great Rabbinical schools. His teach- 
ings deeply impressed many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
who knew of the machinations of the hierarchy (vs. 25). They 
felt convinced that this was the Messiah, and suspected that 
the hierarch}^ shared this opinion (vs. 26) . However, as he was 
certainly not such a Messiah as they desired, they took refuge 
in a puerile objection as to his origin (vs. 27, comp. vss. 41, 42). 

Had they cared to accept him, this matter still troubling 

102 



An Autumn Visit to Jerusalem. 103 

them, they might easily have investigated it; but for a true 
acceptance of him they knew quite enough both of him and his 
origin, as Jesus plainly told them (vss. 28, 29). The Pharisees 
were exasperated by this, even to forming a purpose to arrest 
him ; but his hour — God's time — had not yet come. 

In fact it was only fear of the Sanhedrin (vs. 13) that pre- 
vented the muttered approbation of the people from becoming 
an open acknowledgment of him. As it was, the rumor reached 
the ears of the Pharisees (vs. 32). The Pharisees were the 
true representatives of the religious, yet unbelieving, nation, 
but a large majority of the Sanhedrin, including nearly all 
the priestly party, was composed of Sadducees, who were 
thorough materialists (Acts 23:8). There was a decided 
antagonism between these free-thinkers and the strait-laced 
Pharisees (comp. Matt. 22:34), sticklers for every jot and 
tittle of the law, but here they were entirely at one ; the chief 
priests and Pharisees sent officers to seize him. This was the 
first of that series of judicial measures which ended in his 
death. 

He knew of the purpose to arrest him. His appeal grew 
more earnest as he felt that this was the beginning of the end 
of his work among them, Tet a little while I am with you; and 
it was here that he gave them (John 7 : 33) " the first gleam of 
the Christian doctrine of heaven," the first glimpse of the fact 
that heaven is to be with God. This was so far from being the 
Jewish notion of the place of departed spirits that it is not 
surprising that they did not apprehend his meaning. They 
may have very honestly wondered whether, since, as it seemed, 
the authorities had determined to reject him, it was his purpose 
to go unto the Dispersion (the non-Palestinian Jews), and 
through them reach even the Greeks. 

The eighth, day, that which commemorated the entrance into 
Canaan, was the great day of the Feast (Num. 29 : 35), although 
as dwelling in booths was discontinued on the seventh, many 
pilgrims returned home on that day, and doubtless many of 



104 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

Jesus' most enthusiastic G-alilean followers had left the city. 
It was probably in the solemn hush of the sacrifice hour that 
a voice was heard uprising from the outer court : If any man 
thirsty let him come unto Me and drinh ! The meaning of the 
words, the allusion to the miraculous quenching of thirst in the 
wilderness, could hardly be misunderstood. 

They had thought in G-alilee (John 6 : 14) that Jesus was the 
Prophet promised by Moses ; now they of Jerusalem were 
impressed with the same conviction. The sayings of Jesus all 
through the feast days had convinced them of his likeness to 
the prophetic ideal (Isaiah 11 : 2 ; 61 : 1, etc.), but it was not 
such a Messiah as this that they desired. They clung with 
determination to their visions of a kingly Messiah (Isaiah 9 : 
6, 7 ; Zech. 9:9), and so while some said, This is the Christy 
others took refuge in a quibble, and asked, Shall the Christ come 
out of Galilee? These remarks are only a summary of the 
comments made ; the Greek gives a vivid impression of the 
quick interchange of many diverse opinions (comp. John 1,: 
21). One thing was evident to them all, that the kingdom Jesus 
desired was a spiritual one. Even his professed friends were 
repelled, some more, some less strongly. A few of them were 
even ready to help the officers in arresting him, so strong was 
the revulsion of feeling in the disappointment of their carnal 
hopes. But in general, the impression made by his words was 
very profound. Even the officers sent by the Sanhedrin to arrest 
him felt it (John 7 : 46) — only the rulers remained unmoved. 
One of the number, Nicodemus, did raise his voice in protest 
against the summary action they desired to take, but his words 
produced no effect. 

The first eleven verses of chapter 8, though valuable, and 
bearing the unmistakable stamp of truth, certainly do not 
belong in this place. The chapter properly begins with the 
word of Jesus, / am (vs. 12), and closes with his word, [ 
AM (vs. 58). Between these two words his true character 
and nature are wondrously set forth. It was probably on one 



* An Autumn Visit to Jerusalem. 105 

of the days immediately following the feast, when only the 
people of Jerusalem were left, the hostile Pharisees, the 
bewildered citizens, half ready to believe yet dazzled by the 
very purity of the light which he poured upon them, that 
the first part of this discourse was spoken (vss. 12-19). 
Such teachings were gall and wormwood to the rulers, who saw 
in them the ruin of their worldly hopes. They dared not lay 
hands on him, for there were too many of the common people 
(7 : 49) who were inclined to believe in him, to make such an 
attempt safe in the much frequented place (8 : 20) where he 
was teaching. But he knew their hearts, and from his own 
heart of infinite pity came the words of most sorrowful proph- 
ecy, which fell, as it were, drop by drop, " His tear-words over 
lost Israel" : I go my loay. But ye shall seek me. And shall 
die in your sins. Whither I go ye cannot come. 

In the dense darkness of their self-blinding the Sanhedrin 
never suspected that he knew of their murderous plans (vs. 22). 
And after some little time (vss. 23-29), perhaps not till the 
next day, he spoke again, once more making clear the essential 
difference between himself and them, not a difference of nature, 
nor of substance, but of character. For a moment they caught 
a glimpse of the wondrous meaning of his words, and com- 
pelled by his very truth, as he spoke these words many believed 
on him (vs. 30). 

To those believers (vs. 31) Jesus began a new discourse which 
was for testing, and which showed that they had not the courage 
to follow his teachings. Their answering boast of freedom was 
not a falsehood (vs. 33) , as many think. They were not speak- 
ing of earthly bondage any more than Jesus was speaking 
of political freedom. It was of spiritual privileges they were 
speaking when they asked how they, Abraham's seed, could be 
given a larger freedom than they enjoyed, and in answer Jesus 
showed them a larger spiritual truth than they had ever dreamed 
of : tvhosoever committeth sin is a slave (the words of sin seem 
to be a gloss, and obscure the meaning). Instead of being 



106 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

the spiritual children of God, they luere of a father who is the 
devil, they refused to enter God's fellowship, and the evil 
desires of the devil they ivilled to do. 

This furnished that test for all character, his own as well as 
theirs — the williDgness of men to receive new light from 
above (7: 17). There is something very solemn in the 
silence which followed the question. Which of you convicted 
me of sin 9 And then again the pause that fell after. And 
if I say truth, why do ye not believe mef 

They could not answer. Those who had half believed were 
speechless — not so the members of the Sanhedrin (vs. 48), 
who broke in with a charge of heresy and want of patriotism 
(the word /Samaritan includes both) . 

Jesus would not admit their right to judge, but referred the 
question to God. The next teaching (vs. 56) was not of the 
preexistence of Christ, but of the present interest of Abraham 
in the earthly life of Christ — a most important teaching. 
But on their persistent refusal to understand this (which har- 
monized with Jewish notions of the condition of souls in the 
iutermediate state), he did plainly teach them his preexistence 
and divinity. Now they are quite ready to understand him, 
for it gives them an excuse for stoning him on the charge of 
blasphemy. But Jesus withdrew iuto the crowd, who were 
surely not ready to join in this onslaught, and quietly passed 
out of the temple. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Christ's final departure from galilee, and the mission 

OF THE seventy. 

Matt. 19:1,2; 8:18-22; 11:20-30; Mark 10:1; Luke 9:51—10:42. 

THE GalileaD ministry was at an end, and Jesus set liis 
face toward Jerusalem. He was accompanied, not only 
by the Twelve, but by a large caravan of men and women 
(Matt. 19 : 2, comp. 20 : 17, 29) ; not a festal company, but a 
body of believers, who later made the church of Galilee 
(1 Cor. 15:6; Acts 9:31). They were still dominated by 
worldly hopes, and looked now for the immediate establishment 
of the Messianic kingdom. 

The shortest and most natural route was by Samaria, and 
the presence of this large body made it needful that messen- 
gers should be sent before to make ready for their entertain- 
ment. But the Samaritans, always jealous of the Jews, though 
they had two years before been glad to accept Jesus as thQ 
Messiah (John 4:42), could not tolerate the thought of the 
kingdom being established in Jerusalem, and they refused to 
receive him. It was not a mere ebullition of temper — it was 
pure zeal, or rather, zealotry, misguided zeal, which led the 
Sons of Thunder to desire the condign punishment of the 
inhospitable Samaritans. They honestly believed that such an 
act would be in accordance with the will of Jesus, not knowing 
as yet what manner of spirit they were of. 

Rejected at the border of Samaria, Jesus turned away by 
the highroad that leads down the beautiful valley of the Jezreel, 
to the fords of the Jordan, at Pella, on the boundary of Perea. 
This province was under the dominion of Herod, though 

107 



108 The Life of the Lord Jesus. - 

separated from Galilee by the cities of the Decapolis lying 
spread out f anwise along the three great highways leading from 
Jordan to the northeast and southeast. It was peopled by 
Jews of mixed blood, simple and unsophisticated. Though sub- 
ject to the raids of Arabian tribes (perhaps for that reason) 
the Roman and Herodian yoke was less heavy upon them than 
upon Western Palestine, and their national or religious zeal was 
correspondingly less intense. For these reasons, and also 
because of the preaching of the Baptist, this district offered a 
favorable field for Jesus to continue his work, especially the 
training of the Twelve. 

Perhaps before entering Perea, while on its boundary, Jesus 
enlarged his evangelistic work by choosing from among the 
multitude of believers seventy whom he sent before himself to 
prepare the various Perean villages for his coming. The time 
was short ; as in G-alilee, so here, he would not have any one 
fail of hearing the Gospel of repentance and salvation. The 
instructions which he gave them were largely the same as those 
given to the Twelve on a similar occasion (see Chapter XIX) , 
counsels of .courtesy and prudence. It was natural that in 
sending forth these evangelists to an untried field, the mind of 
Jesus should revert to those cities in which so many of his 
mighty works had been done, Capernaum, Chorazin, and Beth- 
saida, with sorrowful and solemn anticipation of the woes that 
must follow their rejection of his salvation (Luke 10: 13-16). 
How long the mission of the Seventy lasted we do not know ; 
so small and much subdivided a field need not have occupied 
them long. They returned to . a certain undesignated ren- 
dezvous, bringing tidings of success which filled our Lord with 
a holy exultation. Here, for the last time in his history, 
flashed out that high, yet artless joy which so characterized 
his early ministry. He gave thanks to God, who, though he 
had hidden the mysteries of his kingdom from the wise and 
prudent, the proud-hearted rabbis, had revealed them unto 
" babes," the humble and unpretending ones, who, opening 



Christ's Final Departure from Gralilee. 109 

their hearts to love of him, had their eyes opened to the truth 
of God. 

Several months (from November to February, perhaps) 
Jesus passed in this well-prepared district, instructing his 
disciples, especially in the newly-opened truth of the suffer- 
ing Messiah, and giving to them and to the multitudes who 
followed him (already for the most part believers) a course of 
instruction in the characteristics of discipleship, in self-sacrifice, 
and in ethical principles, his many parables being chiefly of 
grace and warning, rather than, as in earlier times, explanatory 
of the kingdom of God. 

The sifting process which he had some time before begun was 
now more rigorously carried on. Three incidents of this are 
given, not as occurring simultaneously but as illustrative of 
the general truth which was henceforth to receive special 
emphasis, that the calling and ministry of God demand the 
entire man. The truth perhaps applies more rigorously to 
Christians of to-day than we are wont to admit. 

One of the most important of the parables of this period not 
only illustrated this truth, but poured a flood of light upon it. 
It was called forth by a lawyer — not one of the Sanhedrin nor 
even a Jerusalem scribe, but a Perean rabbi, who desired not 
to tempt in our sense, but after the common rabbinical habit, to 
test by subtle disputation the abilities of a rival teacher. He 
asked what was required of one who would have eternal life. 
He had no sense of sin — the question was to him a purely 
theoretical one, but his answer to the question by which (in 
true rabbinical fashion) Jesus responded to his question showed 
that he had not only studied the Mosaic law with care but had 
deeply penetrated its spirit. His answer was entirely right. 
There was no irony in Jesus' rejoinder, "This do and thou 
shalt live," for if eternal life were to be won by good works, it 
would be won by works done in the spirit of energizing love 
which he had here described. Perhaps the lawyer thought that 
Jesus did not himself appreciate the difficulty of regulating life 



110 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

by such exalted motives ; he asked (still testing, not carping) 
the great question of the religious life on its practical side — 
Who is my neighbor ? The answer was given in the marvellous 
parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 : 25-37) — the traveller 
despoiled, wounded by highwaymen, passed by in heartless 
indifference by men whose profession was religion, and succored 
by a despised Samaritan. The lawyer's inquiry was transposed 
in the question with which Jesus closed the lovely story — 
"Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor to him 
that fell among the robbers?" and the quick response, "He 
that showed mercy on him," showed that the questioner had 
gained new light. He saw that love, the spirit of service, was 
the basis of men's relations one to another, and that the real 
question is not " Who is my neighbor?" but " Whose neighbor 
am I?" Love is ever reaching out for opportunities to do 
service and transforms all duty into privilege. 

The story may have been told at that mid-period of the 
Perean ministry when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to 
attend the winter Feast of the Dedication (see next Chapter, 
John, chs. 9, 10). The company may have been journeying 
along the very scene of the story, that robber-infested hill-road 
that leads up with the steep ascent of three thousand feet in twenty 
miles from Jericho to Jerusalem. Arrived at Jerusalem, nothing 
is more probable than that Jesus made his abode with the beloved 
family at Bethany. Though, as has already been said, it 
appears more probable that the incident which Luke relates im- 
mediately after the parable of the good Samaritan actually 
occurred on one of Jesus' earlier visits, before he became the 
close, confidential friend of Martha and Mary which it is evi- 
dent from John 11 that he was a few weeks after the present 
time, it is very certain that now, when the enmity of the 
hierarchy was open and pronounced, common prudence required 
that he should not lodge in Jerusalem itself, and that he should 
be surrounded with trusty and influential friends, such as the 
Bethany family appear to have been. It matters not when 



Christ-' s Final Departure from Gralilee. Ill 

Jesus uttered to Martha those words which have been the 
reproof and admonition, and encouragement too, of his disciples 
from that day to this (Luke 10 :41, 42). , In the present day, 
in which Christians have more than ever before learned the 
delight and rich reward of "much serving" of our Lord, it is 
more than ever necessary to remember that beyond all we 
can do for him, or give to him, in gorgeous churches and 
frequent services and abundant charities, he loves to have us 
appreciate himself and prize every opportunity^ of communion 
with him, sitting silent at his feet and hearing his word. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

A WINTER VISIT TO JERUSALEM. 

John, Chapters 9, 10. 

JESUS went back to .Jerusalem in full knowledge of the 
decree which had been made in consequence of the critical 
events of his latest visit (John, chapters 7, 8), excommunicating 
any open follower of him (9 : 22). It was no doubt directly 
because of this decree that, though his miracle-working period 
w^s past, he performed the strikiug miracle of our lesson, 
healing a man born blind. His performing it upon a Sabbath 
day was an incidental witness to the fact that the enmity of the 
hierarchy was not to deter him from bearing witness to all 
forms of truth — as his coming to Jerusalem while thus under 
the ban was a proof of his fearlessness of consequences in the 
work he had to do (comp. 10 : 11), and his conduct when the 
Jews attempted to stone him (vss. 31, 32, comp. 8:59) still 
further showed the hierarchy that they need not expect to 
silence him by any such means, or, indeed, by any means until 
his work was done. All three events were so many tokens of 
his yearning love over Israel (Hosea 11:8). How often would 
he have gathered them and they would not ! 

The disciples, confusedly connecting their Lord's teaching 
about spiritual inheritance (John 8 : 33-47) with the old Jewish 
problem of the cause of affliction — the problem of Job's friends 
— ask Jesus through whose sin this calamity had befallen this 
man. The answer of Jesus turns their mind away from the 
cause of calamity to the purpose — that blessing may ensue. 
He then makes the practical application. What does God call 
us to do in view of calamity ? and answers it (9 : 4-7) by the 
cure of the blind man. 

112 



A Winter Visit to Jerusalem. 113 

The excitement caused by the event is vividly presented by 
the brief questions and answers of the next paragraph (vss. 8- 
12). The efforts made by the Pharisees to discredit Jesus in 
the public mind and to terrify the man into disowning his cure 
simply resulted in completing the spiritual healing of a man 
whom we must hold to have been hitherto peculiarly stolid and 
without interest in Jesus, since though a public beggar on the 
temple steps, hearing all public gossip, he had never in all the 
visits of Jesus to Jerusalem made a request for healing. The 
opposition of the Jews made him more and more clearly see the 
true character and power of Jesus, and he became brave to 
bear even excommunication for his sake (vs. 34) ; when Jesus 
sought him and completed his spiritual illumination. 

Perhaps seeing these two together some day, the Pharisees, 
wondering, not without contempt, at such a companionship, 
were taught (vss. 39-41) that in their own judgment of this 
man they had made clear that the inevitable result of Christ's 
mission was also a judgment. Those who, feeling their blind- 
ness are glad to accept the light, are made to see ; while they 
who proudly claim that they have light enough (comp. vs. 
29) are only blinded by the true Light (comp. Matt. 11 ; 25). 
Their question. Surely we are not blind ? (John 9 : 40) is its 
own answer ; it reveals the very condition he has just described. 
They have chosen to class themselves with those who say We 
see ; the subject, therefore, is no longer blindness, but sin. 
Their sin abideth (vs. 41), for it is morally impossible to free 
those from darkness who determine to receive no more light. 

There is no break between this teaching and the next chapter 
(John 10). Jesus at once illustrates what he has said by two 
parables or allegories, which precisely recapitulate in parabolic 
form the events which had just transpired, as the question in 
verse 21 makes clear. In these parables, as in the miracle of 
healing with all its attendant circumstances, Jesus now gives 
a new revelation of himself. These inimical Jews shall not 
fail of one more effort for their salvation. Though they have 



114 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

closed their minds to the Truth (8 : 31-47) and shut their eyes 
to the Light (9:5, 39-41), still to their hearts he will make the 
last appeal of Love. And so with the boldness of love he sets 
before them, in a series of metaphors, the self-seeking cruelty 
of their conduct, and the divine unselfishness of his own, 
giving them the first unmistakable word of that self -revelation 
of love of which the last was, Father forgive them^ for they 
knoio not what they do. 

There is no such confusion of metaphors in this passage (10 : 
1-10) as devout persons often try to explain away. The para- 
bles are a pair, after Jesus' usual custom, entirely distinct, throw- 
ing light on two different sides of the same truth. The scene of 
the first is the rock-walled sheep-fold, such as perhaps at that 
moment their eyes were resting upon over against the city on 
the Mount of Olives, with its open door toward which various 
flocks were streaming — the door which, open gave them 
entrance, closed, protection. This Jesus was ; the one Medi- 
ator of salvation. The shepherd and the robber and the porter 
are simply incidentals of the story ; we have already learned 
(see Chapter XVI) not to seek for more than one teaching in a 
single parable ; the central thought of this parable is in verse 
7. Then by a natural transition a new parable begins. From 
the love which, existing all for the beloved, in no wise for itself, 
finds in the Door its beautiful representation, we naturally rise 
to the highest expression of love — perfect self-sacrifice, the 
laying down of life. This is so exquisitely represented by the 
Good Shepherd (vss. 11-18) that it has passed into all art and 
literature as the perfect epitome and expression of the G-ospel 
of Christ. 

Here again we must keep to the unity, the simplicity, of the 
parable. The lesson is not of the character of the atonement, 
the nature of vicarious sacrifice ; it is solely of the nature of 
love. The sacrifice of the G-ood Shepherd is indeed not vicari- 
ous — when he lays down his life for the sheep, the sheep are 
at the mercy of the wolf. The sheep have not merited death ; 



A Winter Visit to Jerusalem. 115 

the shepherd dies, not voluntarily in expiation, but, if neces- 
sary^ for love. How impressive, how awe-inspiring is the 
lesson of the fact that it was in presence of his openly avowed 
enemies, of men who bitterly hated him, foreseeing as he must 
have done the ultimate outcome, that he uttered this declaration 
of undying love. How deep was the emotion with which he 
pronounced these marvellous words we see from the poetic form 
into which, in times of strong feeling, his words were wont to 
fall, repeating themselves like a refrain. Four times he speaks 
of the supreme proof of love (vss. 11, 15, 17, 18), each time 
with a higher meaning, a more triumphant sio;nificance. His 
hearers were evidently deepl}^ moved — some to scorn (vs. 20) 
and some to a timid faith (vs. 21). 

Perhaps a day or two after these events Jesus was walking 
in one of the porticoes of the temple, when for the last time 
some of the hierarchy came and vehemently urged him to 
declare himself openly as the Messiah — perhaps even yet 
ready to own him if he would place himself at the head of a 
national movement. But here and always he would base his 
Messianic claim only on his filial relation to God. His argu- 
ment from the passage in Psalm 82 of his right tq call 
himself the Son of God is not a Rabbinical refinement, but a 
deep spiritual teaching. E^ery one who has in any degree 
received the word of God and authority from him, does so far 
partake of the divine nature. How much more he who is in 
fullest measure the utterance of the divine mind and will ! 
The works which he had done were proof enough that he was 
the Word of God. 

They would not accept him in this character, and decided to 
arrest him. But his time had not yet come. He returned to 
Perea, to the sacred scene of his own call and anointing, and 
there taught a prepared people who saw in him the realization 
of all that John had led them to look for. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

DISCOURSES ON PRAYER AND AGAINST THE PHARISEES. 

Luke 11 : 1-13, 37-54 ; Ch. 12. 

JESUS and his disciples had returned to Perea from the 
Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem (last Chapter), and 
were in Perean Bethany where Christ had been publicly an- 
nounced by John as the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world, and where four, at least, of his disciples 
had first seen and learned to love their Master. Great multi- 
tudes had accepted him, prepared in part by the mission of the 
Seventy (see Chapter XXIII), and in part by the revival of 
three years before under the preaching of the Baptist. 

It was some of the recent disciples who made the important 
request. Lord, teach us to pray. They had, perhaps, seen the 
Apostles praying ; they remembered that the Baptist had taught 
his disciples to pray, and recognized that these prayers were 
something quite other than those they had from childhood 
formally offered. In answer Jesus taught them a shortened 
form of the prayer which long before he had taught his 
disciples in Galilee. 

To those who heard him many of the expressions in the 
prayer which Jesus was teaching were familiar. Many of the 
Rabbinical prayers addressed God as Father, and Thy kingdom 
come was a frequent petition on the lips of zealous Jews. The 
ascription with which we always close our repetition of the Lord's 
Prayer does not appear in our Revised Version, for it is not in 
the best text ; it was the common Temple formula of response 
to prayer, and it is by no means impossible that those whom 
Jesus was teaching responded with these words at the close of 
this prayer. One thing, however, is very important : the fact 

116 



Discourses on Prayer and against the Pharisees. 117 

that in all the prayers of the Rabbis are to be found no peti- 
tions in the least corresponding to two of these, Forgive us our 
sins^ and Lead us not into temptation. And no other prayer 
ever uttered so perfectly suras up the heart's best aspirations 
and needs as does this prayer which our Lord, in at least two 
instances, gave to his disciples as a model. 

The prayer was followed by a parable (Luke 11 : 5-8) teach- 
ing — not by any means that God reluctantly answers prayer, 
but that he delights in earnestness, and therefore in the impor- 
tunity which bears witness to it. No parable has been more 
often made to militate against the spirit of true prayer, which 
is always submission to Grod's will. . Its moral is clearly drawn 
in verses 9, 10, Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on 
knocking (as the Greek tenses mean). 

The passage that follows in this chapter evidently has its 
chronological setting elsewhere. We find it in Chapter XVI 
(A Day of Teaching by the Sea of Galilee). What follows 
from verse 37 onward was spoken at the table of a Pharisee, 
who had invited Jesus to a morning meal (not dinner, as in the 
text) , and it turns upon the fact that Jesus sat down to table 
without washing his hands. When we consider the immense 
importance the Jews gave to the ceremony of hand-washing 
before meals, and realize for ourselves the good reasons for 
such a practice at a period when knives and forks as table 
implements were unknown, and every one ate with the fingers, 
frequently from a common dish, we feel sure that Jesus, who 
was most courteous as well as most kind, must have had strong 
reasons for neglecting a custom so easy to practice. What his 
reason was we have already learned (see Chapter XIX). The 
custom was not simply one of refinement, it was a religious 
ceremony and based upon a complete misconception of the 
nature of holiness, which depends, not on external cleanliness, 
but on internal purity. But there was more even than this. 
The principle of separateness which this form typified was 
diametrically opposed to the principle of brotherhood, which is 



118 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

the cardinal Christian doctrine of human relations. Therefore 
it was that Jesus so sternly set his face against this traditional 
custom about washing (Matt. 15 : 2 ; Mark 7 : 3, comp. Heb. 
9:10). How important it was that the mind of his followers 
should be clear on these questions is shown by the fact that our 
Lord uttered similar denunciations against the Pharisees on 
more than one occasion (Matt. 23 : 13-36). 

There were scribes at table — lawyers, learned men, who 
often held in great contempt the ignorant bigotry of the 
Pharisees. They had probably listened with secret pleasure to 
these denunciations, and now identified themselves with the 
Pharisees (Luke 11 : 45) with the intention of bringing out a 
compliment to their superior intelligence. But superior intelli- 
gence only makes error the more blameworthy. 

The strong denunciations of Jesus appear to have led to 
something like an uproar (vss. 53, 54, 12:1), almost, we 
might think, an attempt at violence. People came running 
together to the number of many thousands, trampling one 
another down in their excitement. His opponents seized the 
opportunity to set themselves vehemently against him, those 
nearest plying him with questions with the purpose of eliciting 
something that would rouse popular feeling to a climax. How 
imminent was the danger we learn from Christ's words (12 : 
4) to his disciples, who had evidently rallied around him. 

It is very striking that he should take this time for uttering 
a warning against that leaven of the Pharisees, hypocrisy, for it 
was by no means a genuine religious zeal that inspired the mob. 
His bravery impressed, checked, calmed them. His fearless 
reminder of what he had long ago taught his disciples of the 
Father's ever watchful care (vss. 6, 7) and his calm appeal to 
their courage in this hour of danger (vss. 8, 12) must have 
strongly affected them. We must picture to ourselves the 
seething, shouting crowd to realize the power with which those 
words fell upon the listening ears. 

Perhaps almost immediately the excitement so calmed down 



Discourses on Prayer and against the Pharisees. 119 

that some one could appeal to him for his influence in a matter 
of inheritance. In his answer our Lord defined his own mis- 
sion ; not to remedy individual cases of wrong, but to bring 
into the world a spirit under whose influence men shall not 
desire to wrong their fellows ; not to encourage the wronged 
man to rise against his oppressor, but to take a firm stand both 
against the spirit of oppression and the spirit of greed. The 
root principle of all social and political wrong is covetousness, 
a mistaken selfish idea of what is good and desirable. 

The parable that follows (vss. 16-21) was the natural illus- 
tration of the text (vs. 15), and the occasion was eminently 
one for a repetition (vss. 22-30) of his Galilean teachings 
(Matt. 6 : 25ff.) as to the futility and want of faith involved 
in anxious care for temporal welfare. The conclusion, But 
rather seek ye the kingdom of God (Luke 12 : 31), naturally led 
on to three parables (35-37, 38-40, 42-48) of warning as to 
the second coming of Christ and the sorrows by which it must 
be preceded (49-53). The rebuke with which this discourse 
ended (54-56) was never more appropriate than it is to-day. 
The signs of the time were evident then, but not one whit 
more evident than now. The Jews of Jesus' day, if they had 
but known it, were living in a grand and glorious time — the 
kingdom of God had come near to them ; they had but to 
accept their Messiah, for all the blessings of the Messianic 
reign to begin ; but they closed their eyes to the day of their 
visitation, and the most awful destruction known to histor}^ 
shortly fell upon them. So we. The opportunities of this 
time are glorious; the reign of true brotherhood, of a genuine 
Christianity, is as near as the stretching out of our hands. 
But covetousness, that death-principle against which our Lord 
warned his disciples, is in the air; its hideous influence upon 
our commercial and economic system is everywhere evident ; 
its blight upon society is plain to those who have eyes to see. 
Shall we let it steal over the Church also ? Or shall we discern 
the signs of the times, see and seize hold of our glorious 



120 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

opportunity to purify our social order by rising above its 
miasmatic air into a pure region of unselfishness and the seek- 
ing, not of our own, but our brother's weal ; that upper air of 
divine unselfishness, devoted service,. which our Lord breathed 
while he was on earth ? 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE SABBATH QUESTION AGAIN, AND THE PARABLE OF THE 
GREAT SUPPER. 

Luke, Chapters 13, 14. 

THE opening verses of this lesson appear to follow imme- 
diately upon the closing words of the one that preceded 
it (Luke 12:58, 59). The thought of retribution appears to 
have been in the hearers' minds, and to some recurred a recent 
event, of which indeed history records nothing, though it accords 
too well with Pilate's known acts to be at all doubtful. The 
unspoken question of the Perean narrators was that of the 
disciples with reference to the man born blind (John 9: 2). 
Had those Galileans upon whom fell the tower been guilty of 
atrocious sin? Jesus disclaimed all thought of special retribu- 
tion : all men need to repent, or all shall perish. He illustrated 
by a catastrophe that had occurred to Judeans, (generally held 
to be of superior goodness,) and carried the teaching farther 
by a parable which showed that the need of repentance was 
urgent, that the time of God's long suffering of the Jewish 
nation was almost past. 

The Sabbath question came up in Perea by a miracle per- 
formed by Jesus in a synagogue — the healing of a woman 
afflicted, perhaps, with that paralysis of the will — hysteria — 
which manifests itself in so many ways, and which had kept 
her bowed over for eighteen years. To the rural synagogue 
ruler, as to a large class who fancy themselves peculiarly holy, 
there was no sin like the violation of ecclesiastical order. 
With perverse unreason he rebuked — not Jesus, he had not 
the courage for that ; not the woman, and indeed she had not 
come to be healed, but to worship God ; but the people, who 

121 



122 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

had simply looked on with admiration, telling them to take the 
six week days, not the Sabbath, for being healed — not per- 
ceiving how much he conceded by such a command. This 
senseless opposition of the ruler roused in our Lord that indig- 
nation to which one sin, and one only seemed ever to move 
him. The very concession to Jesus' power showed the ruler's 
zeal for ecclesiastical order to be only a pretence. " Hypo- 
crite!''' our Lord exclaimed. Even the strict rabbinical laws 
permitted the loosing of an animal for the quenching of its 
thirst ; should not this daughter of Abraham — evidently such 
in heart, not merel}^ in blood — be loosed from the Satanic 
bond that for eighteen years had lain upon her will? 

In the favorable reaction that followed his triumphant refu- 
tation of the ruler, Christ told two parables (given also, prob- 
ably, to the Galileans, Matt. 13 : 31-33) having an especially 
important teaching at this late period, when, notwithstanding 
the crowds of followers, the greater part of Christ's time and 
teaching was given to his immediate disciples — the Twelve. 
Men were not to assume that because his teachings were so 
restricted, the kingdom of God was to be confined to a chosen 
few. It must embrace the whole people (Luke 13:19), it 
must penetrate the national life (vs. 21) . Yet salvation was not 
to be a wholesale work. To each individual the question was 
one of individual conduct — effort. " Agonize, contend as do 
the athletes in the arena, to enter in at the narrow gate," for 
the accepted time for the Jewish nation was a limited time. 

We must bear in mind that however properly we may apply 
the words of our Lord to other cases, his words were spoken 
to Jews, and their immediate bearing was always on the atti- 
tude of the Jewish people to the Messianic salvation. So our 
Lord went on with a parable (which was, as it were, a " study " 
for the great parable of the Ten Virgins) teaching that to be 
of the Chosen People, to have had his presence and teaching 
as a part of their common life, was not enough. The workers 
of iniquity would have no part in the kingdom — the Chosen 



The Sahhath Question agari. 123 

Peopre should see themselves displaced by those all the world 
over who would choose to accept and obey him. 

The Pharisees who about this time came to Jesus with the 
ostensibly well-disposed warning that Herod was planning to 
kill him, may have been emissaries of Herod, who, too cow- 
ardly to proceed against Jesus, thought to silence him by 
intimidation, or to crowd him out of his own jurisdiction into 
that of Pilate ; or they may have been of the hierarchical party, 
who desired to have him again in Judea, where alone their 
criminal jurisdiction held. Whatever the motive of the 
warning, Jesus showed that he perceived it. He would not 
" depart" at the bidding of Herod, yet depart he would, for it 
was the will of G-od. (The word is the same in verses 31 and 
33.) Leisurely, in perfect command of his own motives he 
would move on, doing cures for the brief time before his own 
perfecting by death. Yes, he must depart to-day and to- 
morrow and the day following, for only in Jerusalem could he 
die. And at that thought all the yearning of his heart over 
this perverse but beloved nation found utterance in words of 
deepest pathos. 

Somewhere on this last journey he was invited by a Pharisee 
to partake of the hospitable Sabbath feast to which those who 
lived near the synagogue invited those from a distance. Ac- 
cording to custom, there was a watching crowd gathered around 
the open doors, and among them a man with the dropsy. For 
the last time Jesus attempted to free his people from the intol- 
erable yoke of ordinances by performing a cure on the Sabbath. 
This time no accusation was brought against him, the lawyers 
and the Pharisees were dumb. But for the sake perhaps of 
the waiting crowd, whose minds might afterward be obscured 
by Pharisaic teaching, he said a few words setting the action 
in its true light with regard to rabbinical restrictions, and the 
Pharisees present had no refutation to offer. 

The three parables that follow are in sequence of thought 
and applicable to the immediate circumstances. At this Sab- 



124 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

bath feast between the two religious services of the day, to 
which probably a rather heterogeneous company had been 
invited, there had been some rivalry for the " chief seats" on 
the central couch along the upper end of the table ; in a few 
words Jesus showed the nobility of a true humility that seeks 
not great things for itself, but is content with such recognition 
as God will give to real desert. 

The next parable related to that hospitable practice by which 
the present company had been assembled. True hospitality, 
he said, did not consist in inviting only one's rich friends, who 
could return the compliment, but in selecting rather the poor, 
who could do nothing in return. One of the guests upon this 
remarked in a general way, perhaps thinking that Jesus would 
be pleased with the sentiment, that those would be blessed who 
should eat bread in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied with a 
parable which showed that as a matter of fact there are many 
who, though they have much to say of their longing for the 
intimate communion with God and with heavenly things which 
their presence at such a feast would imply, yet do not in their 
hearts care for that blessed privilege. The closing words, in 
which Jesus identified himself with the master of the banquet, 
brought the practical application close home to the hearers, 
showing them the utter worthlessness of self -deceiving piety. 
But the parable teaches more than this : it shows that the king- 
dom of God is a kingdom of grace, prepared, not for those 
who abound, but for those who need — the sinful, the suffering, 
the poor, the destitute. And the thrice repeated invitation, the 
urgent sending to class after class until those actually needy 
were reached, shows the yearning of God that men shall come 
and partake of the blessings he has provided. He longs to 
have his house filled. 

Naturally these teachings gratified and attracted the despised 
crowds around the doors. They followed him in greater num- 
bers than ever, believing, no doubt, that they were to have 
special privileges in the new kingdom. Perceiving their failure 



The Sabbath Question again. 125 

to realize that the partakers of that kingdom must accept 
duties as well as privileges, he bade them count the cost before 
they pledged themselves to his service, for if they were not 
willing to bear their cross and endure hardships for the sake of 
the kingdom, they could not be his disciples. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THREE PARABLES OF GRACE AND TWO OF WARNING. 

Luke, Chs. 15, 16 ; 17 : 1-10. 

THE first three parables of our lesson are addressed in 
part to the despised multitude, who were disposed to 
receive the Lord Jesus- and enter his service. He had taught 
them (Luke 14 : 16-24) that God's kingdom was one of grace 
prepared for those who need, and thej^ had joyfully heard this 
teaching, drawing near to him in increasing numbers. How 
well they understood that he did not purpose to repel them by 
his further teaching that the kingdom was one of duties as well 
as privileges, that there was a cross to be borne for its sake 
(vss. 25-33), is shown by the fact that publicans and sinners 
still kept on drawing near him (15:1). This aroused the 
indignation of the Pharisees and scribes (vs. 2), and these 
parables were therefore spoken also and primarily to them. 

It was not a proof of peculiar perversity that these out- 
wardly righteous people murmured at Christ receiving and 
eating with publicans and sinners. Those of us who take such 
a view simply show how small is our knowledge of human nature 
and of the inveterate persistence of habitual views. The 
publican — the toll collector — was hated by all hjs fellow-citi- 
zens, not only because he, being a Jew, was willing to hold an 
oflSce which witnessed to the subjection of God's chosen people 
to an alien heathen power, but also because almost by the con- 
ditions of his oflSce he was a dishonest oppressor. Publicans 
were everywhere placed in the same category as robbers. It 
was against the law to permit them to offer sacrifices or give 
alms in the temple. It was exceedingly difficult for well- 
disposed people to tolerate their presence or to believe in 
the genuineness of their professions of good intentions, just as 

126 



Three Parables of Grace and Two of Warning, 127 

it is hard for Christians to-day, to believe in the professed 
repentance of men guilty of scandalous sin. And with their 
notions of ceremonial purity it was hard for scribes and Phari- 
sees to see how a good man could eat with such people. 

Jesus had been all over this ground in Galilee. He now 
took up the question in Perea. His treatment of it is mark- 
edly different here from there. There is absolutely nothing of 
controversy in his teachings here, because controversy had 
not been forced upon him as it had been in Galilee. These 
provincial scribes and Pharisees were less learned, less acute, 
less bigoted, perhaps, than those. Living somewhat apart 
from the intense patriotism and ecclesiasticism of the Judeans, 
being less alert and wide awake than the Galileans, they needed 
a different treatment from either, and we see that in teach- 
ing them Jesus is especially mild and conciliatory. The method 
of Jesus with Pereans of both classes, those reckoned as good 
and those classed as bad, was to teach great Gospel truths on 
broad, simple, and very practical lines, leaving aside nearly all 
the symbolical teachings of the Galilean parables, such as those 
of Matt. 13 (see Chapter XVI). Truth is brought straight 
home to the hearts of all classes. He invites his hearers to 
consider God's relation to sinners as viewed from the heavenly 
side, and then, of their own conviction, to justify his own 
relations with men. 

He begins, therefore, with the personal appeal to these 
scribes and Pharisees — What man of you but would do just 
what I am doing if you were in my place, pitying the lost, 
seeking them out at the cost of toil and danger, forgetting for 
the moment those more satisfactory persons who have not gone 
wrong, and rejoicing with exquisite joy — a joy that demands 
the sympathy of others — when at last the lost is found? He 
had told the same story to the Galileans in connection with 
God's love for children, but there it bore a note of warning — 
the awful responsibility of any action which would lead another 
into sin. Here there is no warning, hardly the slisjhtest under- 



128 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

lying reproof, but a full-hearted appeal to his hearers to think 
for a moment how marvellous a thing it was that they had a 
God who could rejoice over the finding of one who was lost ! 
The closing words of the parable must have strikingly brought 
to their minds by contrast the Rabbinical proverb, ' ' There is 
joy before Grod when those who provoke him perish from the 
world." They knew better than this about God. Prophet and 
psalmist had long ago taught them that Jehovah loved his 
people even as a father loves his children ; but this knowledge 
had been overlaid and obscured by the legal notion of the 
relations between man and God taught through generations of 
rabbinism. It needed no argument to show the mistake of 
such teachings — it needed only to appeal to the instincts in 
their own breasts. 

The purpose of the second parable was precisely the same 

— to bring another class of hearers into the same attitude of 
sympathy with God. What woman — and of course there 
were women present — but would understand this intense 
yearning of God for the lost,* even from the petty experiences 
of her daily life ? No need to appeal to the maternal instinct 

— as it seems to us so natural that he should have done ; it 
needed not a universal, all-compelling passion to teach these 
women the value of the lost to God ; the slipping away of a coin, 
a mere didrachma worth fifteen cents, was enough to make them 
catch the awful meaning of the word lost, to one like God. 

His hearers of all classes being thus brought into sympathy, he 
could give to them that most precious of parables, the story 
of the Lost Son. There is no need to rehearse it here ; what 
child can remember when he heard it first? We need only to 
ask what Jesus meant by it to teach the Pharisees and scribes 
and publicans and sinners, women and men, now hanging on 
his words. 

First of all, let us remember that this is a parable and not 
an allegory. The sphere from which it is drawn so easily lends 
itself to allegorical interpretation that it is not surprising that 



Three Parables of G-race and Two of Warning. 129 

it is usually so interpreted, but to interpret it thus is to lose the 
broad, simple, clear, luminous teaching of Jesus as to the re- 
lation of God to men — the purpose of the parable, the full 
and sufficient justification of himself for all his human 
relations. The old tendency to allegorizing interpretation of 
Scripture which was the darkness of the later Jewish and the 
early Christian Church is by no means eradicated from Christian 
teaching to-day. We smile at the ancient teaching that the 
four rivers of Paradise are the four cardinal virtues, and repu- 
diate the " fourfold interpretation" of the Koman Church, but 
we continually obscure the beautiful teachings of our Lord by 
insisting on a minute application of details which were only 
meant to put the central truth in a true horizon. Jesus in his 
teachings always keeps to the main issue. He never intended 
that we should lose sight of the immensely important central 
truth of any parable • — above all, of this one — by turning it 
into an allegory and fitting every detail of it\ to some phase of 
human experience. 

The lesson of this pearl of parables, the Lost Son, is one ; 
it is fundamentally important ; it is at the very foundation of 
the Grospel ; it has nothing to do with the character of the 
sinner, or with the heinousness of his sin, or with the method 
of his return to God. The long, beautiful story is indeed 
strikingly true to human experience ; it was marvellously 
adapted in every incident to bring every hearer into that con- 
dition of sympathy by which he could apprehend the one great, 
glorious truth, and Jesus told these incidents for that purpose ; 
but his heart must have been wrung with a deep pang if his 
hearers began, as we generally do, to apply these details to 
themselves or their acquaintances, instead of gaining from 
them the heavenly atmosphere in which alone they could see 
the truth of God : that he, being a Father, could by no possibility 
act otherwise than he does toward the repentant sinner ; that it 
is in the nature of a Father to rejoice over the recovery of the 
lost child, that it is the natural condition of father and son to 



130 Tlie Life of the Lord Jesus. 

be in a relation of grace, not of debt. Not labor and pay- 
ment, service and reward, but deathless love through all outrage 
and neglect, glad forgiveness of the repentant, and rejoicing 
that must have fellowship over the recovery of the lost. " It 
was meet that we should make merry and be glad " — it was in 
the nature of things ; and father's heart responds to Father's 
heart, and man comes into some apprehension of divine love, 
through such a parable as this. 

There is no back-handed thrust at the Pharisee in the char- 
acter of the elder brother — we have not the slightest warrant 
for assuming that his service all these years had been perfunc- 
tory and heartless. The commonplace truth that every one pre- 
fers warm affection to cold obedience has no more place here 
than the question whether any son of God is perfect (vs. 29). 
The truth is one ; not the obedience of man, but the character 
of God is our warrant for trusting his love. 

The parable of warning (16 : 1-12), shortly after spoken to 
the disciples — the Twelve and the other avowed followers of 
Jesus — so manifestly forbids the allegorical interpretation, 
that teachers are usually careful to keep to its parabolic use and 
point out that only one obvious lesson must be sought in it. 
The lesson is explicitly given by Jesus in verse 9. The unjust 
steward is an example to Christians of the importance of 
looking beyond the present to the long future, and of turning all 
the opportunities of this world — the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness — to account for that purpose. It will "fail," but it is 
possible so to use it that our spiritual growth may be promoted, 
our heavenly home secured. Thus those earthly goods in which 
are such elements of danger — wealth, education, pleasure, 
opportunities of all kinds — being used to good purpose, may 
each become a friend to greet us at the last and make more 
abundant our welcome into the everlasting habitations. 

The complementary parable of the rich man and Lazarus was 
spoken to the disciples and also to the Pharisees, who, being 
covetous (vs. 14), derided Jesus with mocking gestures (so the 



Three Parables of Grace and Two of Warning. 131 

Greek suggests) on hearing a parable which taught that the 
true use of wealth was not for this world, but for the next. 
Here, again, we must keep to the central truth. Our Lord was 
not teaching that there was anything meritorious in poverty or 
sinful in wealth, but that wealth is a stewardship^ and that he 
who uses it for his own gratification, unmindful of the needs 
of others, is of necessity unfit for the kingdom of God. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS, AND THE WITHDRAWAL TO EPHRAIM. 

John 11 : 1-54. 

I) ETHAN Y, now called El-Azariyeh (the town of Lazarus), 
J is less than two miles from Jerusalem (John 11 : 18), 
lying in a deep ravine east of the Mount of Olives. There is 
little reason to doubt that Jesus had visited the family of 
Lazarus at the time of the Dedication Feast ; they were there- 
fore perfectly well aware of his danger. The message which 
the sisters sent to him when their brother became ill does not 
express even a wish that he should come to them. They longed ' 
for his sympathy ; they were not unmindful of that wonderful 
cure wrought from Cana of Galilee on the nobleman's son in 
Capernaum. They had no need to ask for his presence. 

The answer which he sent to them from Perea must have 
strangely perplexed them. When it reached them, Lazarus was 
already in the tomb, for Jesus delayed only two days beyond 
the messenger, and found after a single day's journey that 
Lazarus had been four days dead. 

Why Jesus delayed for two days to go to them cannot be 
explained by his fear of danger, nor by any need that the 
sisters' faith should be tried. The reason must be found in the 
answer of Jesus to the remonstrances of his disciples, who 
knew the danger (vss. 8, 16). He was walking in the daylight 
of his Father's will, obedient to his orders, when he abode two 
days in the place where he was ; as well as when he said, I go, 
that I may aivaJce him out of sleep. The key to all his conduct 
was ever, I do always the things that please him (8 : 29). 

A long day's walk brought them from their Perean retreat 
to Bethany, and on arriving, Jesus, who knew that the house 

132 



Maising of Lazarus, and Withdrawal to Ephraim. 133 

of mourning would be crowded with friends (for the Jews 
deemed it a pious duty to pass seven days of wailing con- 
dolence with those who were bereaved) , stopped before reaching 
the village. Not because he was aware that those were hostile 
Jews who mourned with Martha and Mary, but because he had 
a heart like ours, and longed, as we should do, for an inter- 
view in quiet retii-ement with those whose grief was also his. 

There was no word of reproach in the broken-hearted excla- 
mation with which Martha fell at her Lord's feet. The faith of 
this woman has surely been underrated. In spite of all which 
seems to tell against him, her confidence in this Friend is un- 
shaken. She does not, indeed, understand his true nature, and 
therefore his power. She is sure that he is the beloved of God 
and that God will grant whatever he may request. And because 
of her faith the Lord led her up higher, giving her a sublime re- 
velation of the true nature of life (John 11 : 25). She was able 
to receive it, able to rise above the imperious hope with which 
she had met him, ready to wait for the salvation of the Lord. 
And so at Jesus' request (evidently implied, vs. 28), she could 
go calmly to summon her sister to a quiet meeting with him. 

Their desire for privacy was frustrated by the Jews, their 
guests, who, supposing that Mary was going to the grave for 
one of the periods of loud wailing that custom demanded, fol- 
lowed after her. There is a touching revelation of the ten- 
derness of the tie between them in Mary's way of meeting the 
Lord. Just as a little child, who separated from his mother 
keeps pent up in himself the grief that nearly rends his heart, 
bursts into tears the moment he sees the beloved face, so Mary, 
as she saw him, fell down at his feet with tears, in the certainty 
of his sympathy. 

To ask why Jesus, who could raise Lazarus from the dead, 
should suffer so intensely and with such varied emotions as the 
word translated groaned implies, and as his tears made mani- 
fest, is to forget that he was truly man — not like us, unsym- 
pathetic, half loving, more than half inhuman — and to measure 



134 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

him by a standard which is not that of true humanity. No cer- 
tainty of his thac joy was coming to them made their grief less 
real ; then, in true sympathy with them, his grief was also real. 
And by the very perfectness of his sympathy, the presence 
of the unfeeling, unsympathetic Jews was the most painful. 
There is certainly a shade of indignation, of repugnance, in 
the word which is rendered groaned. 

The Jews felt the reality of Jesus' emotion. As they 
walked along toward the tomb, they kept saying Behold^ how 
he must have loved him I But some of them, less easily run 
away with by their sympathies, suggest a doubt, not of his 
power, but of his love. This was the last insult of unbelief, to 
deny the love of Christ. It was this that caused {therefore^ 
vs. 38) the renewed agitation of Jesus. So they came to the 
grave — the private burial place, like that in which he himself 
would soon lie, with a stone against the door. 

It was in the momentary losing of her firm grasp on the 
newly learned truth what life really is, that the incidentals of 
death came vividly before Martha's mind. Bat the Lord called 
her back to faith by the reminder, not only of what he has just 
taught her, but by his message of three days before. The 
glory of God, this is the ultimate desire, and the seal of the 
faith, of every living soul. 

The prayer of Jesus at the tomb was his last effort to bring 
those around him into sympathy with him, or rather with his 
work. Some degree of belief must exist, even in those who 
stand by, for miracle to be possible, at least in a moment like 
this, when the humanity of Jesus was all one quiver of intense 
sympathy. They who stood by must know — must associate his 
power with God, must gain some glimpse of the perfect oneness 
of the Father and the Son, before he can recall his dead friend 
to life. Then, the prayer offered, he C7'ied out with the great 
voice as of a multitude who shout : Lazarus, hither I forth ! He 
commanded life because he is the Life, and all live to him. 

No miracle was performed where none was needed. The 



Raising of Lazarus^ and Withdrawal to Ephraim. 135 

swathings of the grave were not removed by the voice of power, 
but by the hand of love. 

The immediate result of this miracle was precisely what Jesus 
had foreseen — his own condemnation to death. Alarmed at 
the increasing number of influential people (vs. 45) who were 
won to believe in him, the chief priests and rulers summoned 
the Sanhedrin to what appears to have been an informal, and 
was probably a "packed" meeting (we know that two mem- 
bers who were Jesus' friends were absent, Luke 23 : 51, comp. 
John 19 : 38, 39), and there condemned him to death. They 
did not deny his Messiahship ; they could not deny it, and 
implicitly they even admitted it (11:47, 48). But though 
Jesus were the Messiah, he must certainly not be accepted as 
such, for his acceptance, arousing the vigilance of Rome, 
would be their undoing. Rather, let the Hope of Israel be 
abandoned. In the existing state of popular feeling they 
could not secure his condemnation as a violator of Jewish law, 
and therefore he must be found guilty of treason to Rome. 
This decision explains the attempt of the Pharisees to ensnare 
him in his talk (Matt. 22 : 15-22) when he next and for the 
last time came to Jerusalem. 

Caiaphas, who was high priest in that momentous year (he 
held the office thirteen years) , devised this way out of their 
perplexities. In so doing he uttered a truth, false though in 
his view and purpose it was ; the truth which Jesus during this 
last part of his life was teaching and living — the truth he had 
just exemplified in coming to raise Lazarus — the truth that 
vicarious sacrifice is the law of life as well as of salvation. 
The proper humanity of every human being begins only when 
he accepts this law of life, which not only martyrs and mothers 
have accepted, but the pioneers of every new country, the 
soldiers of an army, the sailors who draw back on a sinking 
ship that women and children may enter the boat. This is 
life, the Spirit of Jesus ; the Caiaphas spirit is death, the spirit 
that will receive all but will give nothing. 



136 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

For the present they could do nothing. Jesus had not yet 
concluded the teaching of his disciples, and so his hour had 
not yet come. For his and their protection he withdrew to the 
sequestered village, Ephraim, on the slope of Mount Ephraim, 
once a part of Samaria, but recovered to Judea nearly two 
centuries before by one of the Maccabees. Here, we may 
believe, his mother and the mothers of several of his disciples 
joined them (Matt. 20 : 20 ; 27 : 55 ; Luke 24 : 10, comp. 8:3), 
to share the sacred intimacy of the last weeks of his life. 



chaptp:r XXIX. 

JESUS BEGINNING HIS LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 

Luke 17 : 11—18 : 17 ; Matt. 19 : 3-15 ; Mark 10 : 2-16. 

NOTWITHSTANDING that the majority of American 
and many English scholars even yet pat the events 
included in the lesson — the incident of the ten lepers, the 
discourses on the coming of the kingdom and on divorce, the 
parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and the incident of 
Christ blessing the little children — in the historic position 
accepted by the Bible Study Union, it seems impossible that 
future study of this part of our Lord's life will not lead to the 
acceptance of an opinion held by an increasing number of 
European scholars, that these events belong to the last journey 
from Gralilee to Perea, and to the Perean sojourn before and 
after the winter Feast of the Dedication. There are chrono- 
logical difficulties in either case ; a satisfactory " harmony" of 
these chapters of the Gospels will perhaps never be attained ; 
but if ever attained, it will be not through historic investiga- 
tions but through a more perfect apprehension of the psycho- 
logical conditions of the time — the state of the public mind, 
the development of popular views and of the views of the 
hierarchy as to the claims of Jesus and their probable 
consequences. 

Read with no thought of harmonic conditions, there seems 
to be no reason why Luke 17:11 should not be a fuller 
description of the journey mentioned in Matt. 19 : 1, 2 and 
Mark 10:1. At that time and for months afterward he was, 
as we have learned in former lessons, followed by crowds gen- 
erally sympathetic, at times critical, mainly less well informed, 
but also less prejudiced than the Galilean multitudes had been. 

137 



138 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Such a setting is absolutely required for the events of this 
Chapter, which can hardly have been duplicated at a later time, 
when everything conspired to compel a rapid movement and 
development of thought and feeling with regard to Jesus. 
Again, it is evident from John 11 : 55 that those Passover 
pilgrims who went up somewhat early to Jerusalem, according 
to a widely followed custom, for purposes of purification, knew 
nothing of Jesus' whereabouts, as they would surely do if he 
were making a leisurely progress through the country, according 
to the present harmony, at the head of a gradually increasing 
caravan of Passover pilgrims. 

For the study of the passages before us this is a matter of 
minor importance, but it is of importance to get as far as pos- 
sible a clear notion of the historic development of our Lord's 
earthly life. 

At some period of our Lord's journeyings, drawing near to a 
village on the border line between Samaria and G-alilee, a piti- 
ful company of ten lepers appealed to him from a safe distance 
for healing. It is hardly likely that a leper colony was estab- 
lished there ; rather may it be conjectured from the evident faith 
of these sufferers (Luke 17 : 13, 14) that they, having heard of 
the healing of a G-alilean leper (Matt. 8:2, 3), and learning 
that Jesus was to pass that way, had hastily come together 
from various parts. Their confidence in his power was so 
strong that they unquestionabl}^ obe3^ed a command that but 
for faith must have seemed meaningless, and at once set out to 
do that which would be useless unless their healing took place 
on the way. The special importance of the incident to us lies 
in its teaching that want of the grace of gratitude may exist in 
union with very strong faith, and in making evident the moral 
ugliness of such a lack. What appears so unaccountable in 
this story is only too commonly our own experience. 

In the course of the Perean sojourn, if we follow Luke's 
chronology, appears a discourse to the disciples on the coming 
of the now anxiously expected kingdom, suggested by a ques- 



Jesus Beginning Sis Last Journey to Jerusalem. 139 

tion of the Pharisees (Lake 17 : 20). To them Jesus answered 
only that the kingdom was not that which they expected ; for 
it was already in the midst of them. But to the disciples, 
after reminding them that this present time was the one to 
which, in later days, they would look back with longing, he 
went on to describe that second coming to which he still directed 
their thoughts. It was only, so to speak, a primary lesson ; ho 
was to return to the subject on one of the last days of his life 
(Chapter XXXVI) , but here he gave them a brief glimpse of his 
future return as something " bright, sudden, terrible, universal, 
irresistible," but to be preceded by much of trial, and especially 
by his own rejection. A parable followed (18 : 1-8) to show 
that in all these vicissitudes God is a God of justice, and there- 
fore that, however great their sorrows, however long delayed 
the help, they may confidently cr}^ unto him continually. The 
difficulty will not be with God's long-suffering, but with the 
continuance of faith through the time of trouble. 

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican which was prob- 
ably spoken immediately afterward (vss. 9-14) shows the 
proper state of heart in which these importunate, never-failing 
prayers should be offered. The Pharisee, in his proud and 
exclusive self -righteousness, cannot truly pray, cannot offer a 
prayer through which he may be justified before God ; it is the 
humble Publican, not sinless, but profoundly sorry for his sin, 
ashamed and repentant, who comes into right relations with God. 

It must have been in one of the larger towns of Perea, 
where the hostile influence of Jerusalem more strongly affected 
the Pharisaic mind, very possibly at the same time and by 
the same Pharisees who (16 : 14) derided him after the 
parable of the unjust steward and the teaching that we cannot 
serve God and mammon, that a question about divorce was 
put to him (Matt. 19 :3-12) with desire to embroil him with 
the religious authorities. He had told them (Luke 16 : 15) 
that they themselves broke the spirit of God's law, and he had 
brought up (vs. 18) their views and teachings on the subject 



140 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

of divorce in proof of his charge. Perhaps, Perea being 
under Herod's jarisdiction, they fancied that to get him to pro- 
nounce without qualification against divorce would array Hero- 
dias against him, as before against the Baptist ; but their chief 
purpose, here and always, was to put him in opposition with the 
Rabbis, and the question (Matt. 19 : 3) was ingeniously calcu- 
lated to do this, for on the words, " for every cause," the two 
Rabbinical schools were divided, and he could hardly answer it, 
they thought, without provoking opposition between himself 
and one or the other of these schools. But here, as ever, 
Jesus rose above the sphere of controversy by appealing to 
high and eternal principles. From the beginning^ before Rabbis 
or the Mo3aic law, Grod had shown his divine ideal and had 
ordained that his glorious purposes were to be carried out 
through that mysterious distinction of sex which no philoso- 
pher has ever fathomed, and that sublime ordinance of dual 
unity which, above all things else, foreshadows and explains 
the oneness of the divine and the human. Only one thing 
could dissolve that holy and typical union — the sin that made 
it impossible. And yet, the chief thing always is the doing of 
the will of God. Celibacy is honorable when it promotes that 
will, though the Jews thought not so. 

It was marvellously fitting that at the conclusion of this 
stern, yet loftily sympathetic discourse, the mothers of the 
place should bring their children for his blessing. Was mar- 
riage indeed so sacred, so divinely typical? Then how near to 
God's heart must be the little ones by which such a union was 
blessed ! The mothers understood him better than the disciples, 
who would not have had their Lord disturbed. But since he 
consecrated childhood by being a child and by blessing chil- 
dren, we have learned to understand something of the solace 
it must have been to his human heart, sore tired by the contra- 
diction of sinners, to take in his arms these little ones in whose 
innocence, humility, teachableness, weakness, he saw a fore 
shadowing of the kingdom of God. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

TEACHINGS BY THE WAY : WORLDLY AND SPIRITUAL WEALTH 
AND GREATNESS. 

Matt. 19 : 16—20 : 28 ; Mark 10 : 17-45 ; Luke 18 : 18-34. 

THE three incidents of this Lesson, though not historically 
connected, are grouped together from their bearing 
upon a single thought, the relative character of self-seeking 
and self-giving, with the closely related thought of the relative 
importance of material and spiritual things, of things tempo- 
rary, that is, or things permanent (2 Cor. 4 : 18). 

The incident of the young ruler belongs historically to the 
period of the Perean Ministry (Chapter XXIII and follow- 
ing) , and therefore before the raising of Lazarus (XXVIII) . 
Jesus, with his disciples and friends, was continually sur- 
rounded with a Perean multitude ; the opposition of the hier- 
archy was continually growing and known to be growing, 
though not manifested with such virulence in Perea as in 
Jerusalem and Galilee ; the popular expectation of the speedy 
setting up of the kingdom was very strong and still grow- 
ing, and Jesus himself clearly perceived his eventual rejec- 
tion by his nation. This was the state of things when One 
day, perhaps the morning after his blessing the little chil- 
dren, as he set forMi upon his journey, one came eagerly 
running to ask of him how he might inherit eternal life. He 
was a young man of most attractive bearing, a ruler in the 
local synagogue, a man of rare purity of life, high moral 
character, and deep earnestness ; one of the noble few in that 
or any age who seek Jesus because they already have deep 
yearnings after holiness, and feel that he alone can meet them. 

No wonder that Jesus, looking upon him, loved him (Mark 

141 



142 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

10:21). It would seem to us that here was one eminently 
fitted to take that place among the Twelve from which Judas 
was so soon to fall. And it would seem as if our Lord thought 
so, too, for he gave him such a call as he gave to no one else 
except his twelve Apostles — a call to absolute renunciation of 
earthly things, even the good things of power and influence 
and wealth used to no unworthy end, for the sake of that which 
his soul craved, fellowship with the eternal good. His soul 
had craved perfection and Jesus offered it to him (Matt. 19 : 21). 
Alas, the sacrifice was too great ! He missed the opportunity 
of his life, which was by absolute self-sacrifice to put himself 
in perfect harmony with the eternal order : firsts the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33); then the "all 
other things " which in his life of fellowship with the eternal 
good he might need — such things as the disciples had, who 
lacked for nothing (Luke 22 : 35) . 

It is important to apprehend correctly the teachings of Jesus 
about renunciation. We must bear in mind their historic 
setting — spoken, as they were, in a time when the interests of 
Christ's kingdom required a degree of self-effacement and 
renunciation that they do not now when Christian principles are 
in the very fabric of men's minds. Not, let us be very careful 
to observe, because the principle is modified ; principles cannot 
be modified ; but because circumstances are changed. It is 
just as hard now as then for one who has riches to enter the 
kingdom of God, if the kingdom of God has the second place in 
his heart; but it is easier for Christians now to give the 
kingdom its true place, because they understand its nature 
better, and because they live in a society where its nature is 
better understood. The sin of not giving it the first place must 
be incomparably greater now than then, but to those who do 
give it the first place, the possession of wealth may become 
the blessing it could not possibly have been then, when riches 
could be of absolutely no use in promoting the kingdom. The 
teaching of Jesus here is plain — the teaching of his life and 



Teachings ly the Way. 14B 

death — that the Christian spirit, that is, the spirit that longs 
for fellowship with the eternal good — is one that sees that 
of necessity the kingdom comes first, whatever else may be 
desirable or undesirable. There is no schism between this 
world and the next ; to the Christian they are not two realms, 
bat one, God being King over the whole ; but the other world 
is the real, the important, the interesting world ; this is impor- 
tant, interesting, real only as it subserves that other. Those, 
whether rich or poor, to whom the first interest is money and 
what it will buy — food, lodging, clothing, culture, recreation 
— live in a vain show, a phantasmagoria, a vapor (James 4 : 
14). Those, whether rich or poor, whose first interest is the 
kingdom of God, are partakers in the eternal life. 

The self-satisfaction of Peter in discovering (Matt. 19:27) 
that he and his fellow-disciples were conformed to the rule of 
the kingdom is painful perhaps to see, though it is not unusual 
in experience. Our Lord did not rebuke him ; he understood 
better than most of us do how genuine and severe had been 
the self-denial of the Twelve. Rather, he gave them strong 
encouragement by telling of the rewards that even now, and 
far more in the end, await those who have followed him in. his 
humiliation. Only there was a warning, meant, we may think, 
not so much for them as for later Christians, ourselves, for 
example ; the reward is not of debt, not of mercenary calcula- 
tion. And to illustrate this, Jesus told (20 : 1-16) the parable 
of the Laborers in the Vineyard, to show that while all should 
receive their reward, the question could never be. How much 
have you done or suffered? but, How closely has your heart 
cleaved to the principle of doing all you can for the kingdom 
of God? 

And now we return to Ephraim, to which Jesds had retired 
after the raising of Lazarus and th^ definite resolution of the 
hierarchy not merely to put him to death, but to do it in such 
a way as to destroy his moral influence — by the hideous and 
shameful death of the cross. Yet even here Jesus was in 



144 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

command. They might put him to death, yet not at their own 
time, but at his, or rather, at G-od's. It must be at a great 
feast, when the nation, as a nation, might have its opportunity 
to pronounce for or a'gainst him. 

So he withdrew beyond their reach and gave these last weeks 
to his disciples, his mother, his faithful women friends. And 
when the Passover time drew near, being in full harmony with 
the will of Grod, he set out upon his return, turning his steps 
toward Jericho to put himself now at last at the head of the 
pilgrim caravan and enter Jerusalem as the Messiah of Israel. 

On the way, to prepare his disciples for what was before 
them, he led them apart (20 : 17) from the women, whose tender 
hearts need not yet be rent by the awful news, and told them 
that the time had come of which he had twice forewarned them 
(16 : 21 ; 17 : 22, 23) when he must be delivered up and put to 
death ; telling them for the first time the shameful manner of 
the death — crucifixion — and its means, the Roman power (the 
Gentiles) . But even while admitting the deep humiliation to 
which he would be subject, he revealed his marvellous majesty 
in the prophecy of the resurrection.- They might put him to 
death, but they could not make him subject to death ; the third 
day he would rise again. 

They could not understand it ; they evidently thought it must 
be some parable of fearful conflict, bitter defeat, to be quickly 
followed — in three days! — by splendid triumph. And with 
the natural abhorrence of the mind for painful things, their 
imaginations overleaped the dreadful ordeal and fixed upon the 
triumphant outcome. Especially the two fiery brothers, James 
and John, ready to dare and endure all things for the kingdom, 
found themselves entranced with the thought of that mysterious 
coming glory of which nothing less than resurrection from the 
dead could be a fit symbol. They were ready enough to join 
their mother (20 : 20) in the request that in that kingdom, as 
always in his humiliation, they might be his closest friends, his 
most trusted servants, his right and left hand administrators 



Teachings hy the Way. 145 

(vs. 21). Yes, they were ready to endure the terrible ordeal 
of which he had spoken, to drink the bitter cup (vs. 22). 

Oh, the wonderful patience of our Lord ! The patience of 
his repetition of what he had so often taught them in words 
and so continually in his life, that the greatness of the king- 
dom is in service, that the humblest place in it is, in fact, the 
noblest; the dearest privilege not high position, but much 
ministry ! To be first, we must be servant ; to be first, we 
must be like our Lord ; not, like the young ruler, finding value 
and opportunity in wealth, not, like James and John, seeking 
high responsibility, but like our Lord, who sought not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and who gave his life a ransom 
for many. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

FROM JERICHO TO BETHANY : THE CLOSE OF THE LAST JOURNEY 
TO JERUSALEM. 

Matt. 20 : 29-34 ; 26 : 6-13 ; Mark 10 : 46-52 ; 14 : 3-9 ; Luke 18 : 35— 
19:28; John 11:55—12:11. 

OUR Lord's purpose in going from Ephraim to Jerusalem 
by way of Jericho, instead of by the direct road, 
was to put himself at the head of the Passover pilgrims. 
The time of decision had come : that claim of Messiahship 
which from the beginning he had implicitly made, by cleansing 
the temple, by miracles, by teachings, he would now explicitly 
make by a public triumphal entrance into the holy city ; yet not 
after the proud manner of ordinary kings, but in the humble 
and significant manner announced by prophecy. 

Eight days before his crucifixion our Lord drew near to the 
gate of Jericho, not from the northern, or Ephraim side, but 
from the east, having gone forward to join the pilgrim caravans, 
one coming from Perea, and one by the shorter, though uncom- 
fortable route from the north through the Jordan valley. 
These caravans were nearly, though not quite, the first, and 
consisted almost wholly of Jews of specially devout minds, 
carefully obedient to the law of Moses, who went up to Jeru- 
salem a week earlier than was needful, that they might there go 
through all that was required for ceremonial cleanness. Already 
there were some Galileans of this class in Jerusalem (John 11 : 
55, 56), watching eagerly for the arrival of Jesus. 

These caravans contained a large proportion of his Galilean 
and Perean adherents. We know that there were thousands in 
those districts who, with more or less of misapprehension, 
believed in him, and these would be of all the population the 

146 



From Jericho to Bethany. 147 

most devout and most careful to observe the Mosaic laws, still 
believing, as nearly all of them did, that the Messianic kingdom 
would be established on the basis of those laws. Jesus could 
count upon a certain degree of protection from them against 
the attacks of the hierarchy (comp. Mark 14 ; 2). Thus there- 
fore, surrounded and followed by an enthusiastic and expectant 
multitude, he drew nigh to the gate of Jericho. 

Jericho, the Fragrant, so called from its gardens of roses 
and plantations of balsams, is now nothing but " a few hovels 
and a tower on the edge of a swamp." In the time of our 
Lord it was a city not only of priests, but of traders, the busi- 
ness city of the south as Capernaum was of the north. The 
rich caravans from Persia passed through it, and both export 
and import trade and taxes were very large. A large number 
of tax collectors were therefore needed here, and over them 
was placed by the Roman government an administrator of the 
revenues, or " chief publican " Zacchaeus by name. Being a 
Jew he would be doubly hated, because he not only served the 
Romans in a hateful calling, but because as head of the tax 
gatherers his opportunities for greedy oppression would be 
almost unlimited. 

Entering Jericho then at the head of the Passover pilgrims, 
the excitement of Christ's followers was quickly communicated 
to those in th-^ streets. These were not simply the usual crowd 
of an important commercial city ; it was the custom for the 
inhabitants of every town to go out to meet a festal band and 
bid it welcome. The news that Jesus of Nazareth was at the 
head of this band must have flown like wildfire through the 
city, and the streets were thronged as never before. The 
crowd around Jesus soon became so dense that it was impos- 
sible for one small of stature to see Jesus by standing on the 
ground. Zacchaeus, the head publican, was short of stature, 
and longing intensely to see him, hs ran before the crowd 
and climbed into the over-hanging branches of a sycamore 
tree. 



148 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

There is good reason to believe that in spite of the bad 
reputation he still had, Zacchaeus was one of the many 
publicans who repented at the preaching of the Baptist, and 
received baptism of him. For when Jesus called him down 
and offered himself as guest at his house, he felt himself com- 
pelled by the discontented murmurings of the multitude to 
justify himself at least in Jesus' sight, by telling him that for 
some time, probably since his repentance and baptism, he had 
not "sinned" in the sense of these murmurings; he had 
obeyed the Mosaic law (Ex. 22 : 1) in restoring fourfold of all 
wrongful exactions, and besides this, had given, not the fifth, 
as the strictest Rabbinical law required, but the half, of his 
goods to the poor. True son of Abraham that he was, not 
only by blood, but by obedience to the commands of God spirit- 
ually apprehended, that day salvation was openly declared to 
have come to his house ; and he was held up as type of those 
whom Jesus had come to seek and save. 

If this event somewhat cooled public enthusiasm, it was 
aroused again the next morning when Jesus left the city, by 
the healing of blind Bartimseus. Indeed, the time of miracle 
working had long been past ; all the witness that signs could 
bear to his Messiahship had been borne. It was purely from 
compassion that he responded to the importunate appeal of 
two blind men sitting at the Jerusalem gate of Jericho, who 
hearing the tramp of a mighty multitude, and learning that 
Jesus of Nazareth was there, cried earnestly for relief. This 
miracle stimulated the enthusiasm of the multitude to the 
highest pitch (Luke 18 : 43), and their conviction that the king- 
dom of God was immediately to appear (19 : 11) became so 
strong that it was necessary for our Lord to control it by the 
parable of the Minse — the Pounds (A. Y.). 

The parable was based upon a historic fact well known to all 
Jews, and especially impressive at this time, because its scene 
was Jericho. From his palace in Jericho Archelaus, son of 
Herod (Matt. 2 : 22), had set out for Rome (comp. Luke 19: 



From Jericho to Bethany. 149 

12) to be confirmed in the inheritance of the kingdom of 
Judea ; from it had followed after him a deputation of citizens 
to say that they would not have him for king (vs 14) . To it 
he had, however, returned as king (vs. 15) in spite of the 
hatred of his subjects. Here the historical resemblance ceased ; 
it had been enough to fix the minds of the listeners and make 
them perceive that Jesus spoke of himself as the nobleman, 
that he had yet to go a far journey before receiving the king- 
dom, that some of his subjects would rebel against him, and 
that his own disciples would receive a trust to fulfil against his 
return. Then came the result: some would be faithful and 
would receive a reward according as they had proved them- 
selves fit for responsibility, and some who had seen no profit 
in serving their master would be punished by losing all oppor- 
tunity of further service. But those who had declared them- 
selves enemies of their Lord were slain that his triumph on his 
second coming might be complete. 

And when he had said these words, Jesus went on before 
the multitude, his mind completely absorbed in the thought of 
what now lay close before him. 

A six hours' journey brought him to Bethany (John 12 :1). 
It is easy to understand why he made this place his home at 
this time. He was not safe in Jerusalem (11; 57), and he 
would affront danger only when and so far as his own plans 
required. And if, as appears reasonable and probable, Laza- 
rus had been with him since his recall to life (12:10, 11, 
comp. vs. 9), it would be most of all natural that his home 
would be that of Jesus at this time. 

Six days before the Passover was, we understand, the 
Sabbath, the feast day. Naturally a supper was made for 
Jesus by his friends ; in the house of Simon the leper, Matthew 
(26 : 6) and Mark (14 : 3) say, but whether Simon was the 
dead father of Lazarus and his sisters, or the dead husband 
of Martha, or whether, being the father or husband, he had 
been a leper and was now restored by Jesus, we cannot know. 



150 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Martha served (Joho 12 : 2) and Lazarus sat as guest. Mary, 
we must believe, sat near, drinking in every word that fell from 
her Lord's lips. 

As she listened and gazed the love in her soul interpreted 
to her the dreadful words which to all others, however near 
and dear, were yet a sealed mystery (Mark 14 : 8), and rising, 
with a heart bursting with love and sorrow, she brought the 
most costly article, doubtless, in the house. It was an alahas- 
tron, or vial, of Persian nard, a liquid gum of exquisite 
fragrance and of rare value. Breaking the vial she poured 
the perfume first upon the head of Jesus as in a royal conse- 
cration, and the remainder upon his feet — an act of homage 
never until long after this offered even to kings — wiping his 
feet with the long tresses of her hair, while the delicious odor 
exhaled through the room, as it has ever since exhaled through 
the world, the perfect type of self-sacrificing love. 

Yet the disciples, slow of heart (Matt. 26:8), and es- 
pecially Judas, the covetous (John 12:4, 6), could not 
understand it so ; they thought only of the waste, of the poor 
that might have been fed and clothed with the three hundred 
shillings the nard would have brought — a whole year's earn- 
ings of a laboring man. They could not understand — and 
we do not yet understand — the value our Lord puts upon 
love and upon its expression, any more than they — or most 
of us — can understand how little^ after all, can be done 
for the poor with money, unless the love that goes with 
it is more than the money's worth. Surely this incident 
was recorded to the lasting honor of this woman (Mark 14 : 
9), that we may learn to rectify our estimate of values, 
and learn how dearly our Lord prizes the outward expres- 
sion of homage and love. And need we ask which of those 
two would be most ready to give to the poor, Mary who lav- 
ished her best upon the Lord, or Judas, the bearer of the 
bag, who murmured? 

And with one word, spoken not to her, but to the mur- 



From Jericho to Bethany. 151 

murers, he showed her that he recognized in her the prescience 
of love ; that he saw that she alone was in such perfect 
sympathy with him as to understand his teachings: "For in 
that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to 
prepare me for burial." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY, AND THE SECOND CLEANSING OF THE 

TEMPLE. 

Matt. 21 : 1-19 ; Mark 11 : 1-19 ; Luke 19 : 29-48 ; 21 : 37, 38 ; 
John 12 : 12-19. 

"TXT^E have come now to the last week of our Lord's life — 
VV his Week of Suffering. Not that he had not had 
much of sorrow through the former years, or that this last 
week of his life did not hold many hours of deep joy. But 
this was the week in which he endured not only the extremity 
of physical pain, but the more intense agony of being betrayed 
by his close companion and friend and forsaken by all his 
disciples, and the still deeper anguish of knowing that his 
nation had thrown away the glorious privilege which for 
thousands of years had been theirs, of being G-od's elect, 
chosen to be the repository of divine truth, the medium by 
which all mankind should be brought to a knowledge of God. 
On the morning of Sunday a great number of the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem (John 12:9), having learned from the Passover 
pilgrims that Jesus had come and was lodging somewhere 
outside of the city, joined a multitude of these pilgrims (vs. 
12) and went out to hail him and bring him to Jerusalem 
as King. We must bear in mind that Jesus had distinctly 
put himself at the head of the Galilean caravan. They all 
remembered that a year before he had refused to do this, when 
they had desired to carry him from Galilee to Jerusalem and 
there proclaim him King (their notion of the Messiah), and 
they saw in his act at this time an open claim to the Messiah- 
ship. In this they were right ; they were wrong in still 
insisting upon their own views of the Messiah's functions and 

152 



The Triumphal Entry. 153 

mission. It has been thought that perhaps by going out to 
find and bring him in triumphal procession to Jerusalem, they 
wished so to compromise him as to force him now at last to 
accept their views and act as they desired ; but this is not 
probable. Rather, they were blinded by their wishes, by their 
intense desire for a temporal Messiah who should free them 
from Rome, and therefore they still failed to understand his 
teachings concerning his mission. 

As they went out from Jerusalem bearing the palm branches 
with which kings were welcomed, Jesus was setting out from 
Bethany, purposing to enter Jerusalem in such a way as should 
not only make evident his claim to be the Messiah, but should 
bring to the popular mind the true Messianic ideal (Zech. 9:9). 

The site of Bethphage is now unknown, but the Talmud 
speaks of it as a more important village than Bethany. The 
two villages were probably close together, though tradition puts 
Bethphage nearly at the top of the Mount of Olives, where is 
now the ruined hamlet, Et Tur. Peter and John probably 
were the two disciples sent to bring from thence an ass's colt, 
which they would find at the entrance of the village. The 
answer, "The Lord hath need of him," would be sufficient for 
any owner at this time, when every one was eagerly expecting 
that Jesus would take upon himself the functions of the Mes- 
siah. Matthew says that the mother ass was also sent for, but 
there is no room here for the scoff of unbelievers that it was 
impossible for Jesus to have ridden the two beasts. Neither 
Matthew (21 : 5), nor Zechariah (9:9), from whom Matthew 
quotes, gives such an impression. To any one familiar with 
Bible language the prophecy that the Messiah should come 
riding on an ass is amplified by the explanation that that ass 
is a colt, a beast never before put to such a use. 

As Jesus and his disciples and friends set forth upon their 
walk they were followed by the inhabitants of Bethany (John 
12 : 17) and pilgrims who were lodging with them. The large 
number of pilgrims who were camping in booths or tents 



154 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

naturally joiDed the procession, especially when they perceived 
him riding upon the ass. It is a customary act of homage in 
the East to spread the outer garment upon the ground for one 
greatly reverenced to walk or ride upon. This they did, cutting 
branches also from the gardens along the wayside to strew 
before him. And so going on in his train, along the road 
that skirts the southern slope of Olivet, they came to a place 
(Luke 19:37) where a dip in the slope gives a view of the 
southern part of Jerusalem, Mount Zion with Herod's castle 
crowning the height. Here probably the two 'companies met, 
those from Jerusalem and those who were following Jesus ; 
and the latter, fired by the sight of Jerusalem, the former 
ecstatic at the view of Jesus at the head of another triumphal 
procession, both companies burst forth into loud acclaim 
" Hosanna ! Blessed is He that cometh in the nam'e of the 
Lord ! Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, the kingdom of 
our father David ! Blessed is the King of Israel ! Hosanna 
in the highest ! " 

The Pharisees had their representatives among the Jerusa- 
lem multitude, and these remonstrated with Jesus, not trying 
as before to get him to commit himself by claiming to be King, 
but to induce him to damp the ardor of the multitude by for- 
bidding their acclaim, as he had done before. But no; this 
was his hour, the hour of his distinct and open assertion of 
his Messiahship ; so true was the impulse that owned his claim 
that — to use a prophetic figure which they well remembered 
(Hab. 2:11) — the very stones would cry out if they were 
checked in their plaudits. 

The first glimpse of Jerusalem was but brief : a swelling of 
the hill soon shut it off. But as they turned the shoulder of 
the mount, across the deep intervening gorge of Kidron burst 
upon them a clear view of the whole city in the perfection of 
its beauty, sitting majestic on its hills, crowned with palaces 
and towers, and the glorious temple, a glittering mass of 
marble and gold, rising proudlv above it all. And at the sight 



The Triumphal Entry. 155 

the vision of a dreadful future rose up before our Lord ; tears 
gushed from his eyes as he groaned, " If thou hadst known in 
this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace ! " 
Even then, if Jerusalem would but have yielded herself to her 
Lord, it would not have been too late. But, alas, it was not 
so, and an awful judgment awaited her in the lifetime of many 
who stood there. 

The tears of Jesus were seen only by those nearest him — 
his own disciples — and the procession moved on and entered 
the city. The stir caused by it was very great ; but Jesus 
gave no opportunity for any public outbreak. He entered the 
temple ; perhaps it was the solemn hour of evening sacrifice 
(3 P.M.). Few of the multitude, probably, were purified, and 
so this act caused the crowd to melt away. And when all 
was quiet he returned to Bethany for the night. 

On Monday morning as Jesus and his disciples were return- 
ing to Jerusalem, occurred the incident of the cursing of the 
fig tree, evidently with the purpose of teaching a needed 
lesson. Jerusalem was as exuberant now in professions of 
allegiance and service as this tree in its too early foliage. The 
curse upon the fig tree was a prophetic warning of what would 
befall the nation if, like that, its brave show only hid the 
absence of fruit. The next morning the disciples saw that the 
act of God had followed upon the command of Jesus. 

The people had openly acknowledged Jesus as the Son of 
David. Would the priests and rulers do so,^giving up their 
ambitious desires of an earthly kingdom, or their timid fears of 
breaking with the existing state of things ? Since the Passover 
feast three years before, when he cleansed the temple, they had 
had time fully to weigh his claim, to perceive that though not 
such a Messiah as they had hoped for, yet that surely he was 
the Saviour anointed by God to bring them into the ' ' free- 
dom " of his service ; would they accept such a Saviour ? 

During Monday and Tuesday, the opportunity wds given. 
During these two days it may be said that Jesus reigned in his 



J 56 Tlie Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Father's house, for it seemed as if priests and rulers had abdi- 
cated in his favor. He was not hindered on this Monday 
morning when he repeated the action of three years before and 
drove the sellers of cattle and doves and the money changers 
out of the Court of the G-entiles, and would not permit people 
to make it a thoroughfare between various parts of the city. 
When the blind and the lame came to him in the courts now 
given up to sacred quiet, no one molested him as he healed 
them all, and when the children, recognizing him, burst forth 
in the cry, " Hosanna ! " though some of the priests remon- 
strated, the children were not hushed. There is no doubt that 
fear of the multitude kept the rulers quiet ; if they had but 
known it, this was their day of grace. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Christ's authority challenged. 

Matt. 21 : 20—22 : 14 ; Mark 11 : 20—12 : 12 ; Luke 21 : 19. 

JESUS and his disciples had spent Monday night either in 
Bethany or under some easily constructed shelter upon 
the Mount of Olives, like hundreds of other Pasover pilgrimss 
His object in lodging outside of the city was to avoid being 
secretly arrested by the officers of the Sanhedrin who, as we 
know, had determined on his arrest, but dared not take open 
measures for fear of a popular tumult. It therefore would 
seem to be the part of prudence for Jesus not to spend many 
successive nights in one place. 

On returning to the city in the morning, the disciples observed 
with wonder that the fig tree which Jesus had cursed was now 
dead. They had already learned from the Lord's words on the 
preceding day (Mark 11 : 14) that the natural punishment of 
uufruitfulness was barrenness — a lesson that Christians need 
to lay earnestly to heart. They now are given a further teach- 
ing — that the inevitable result of uufruitfulness is death. 
But as they were more impressed by the fact of the miracle 
than by its symbolic teaching, Jesus gave them a new teaching 
from this very fact — that faith in God is the principle by which 
the material realm becomes subject to the will of man. Lest 
they should so misunderstand his sentence of the tree as to 
deem that it gave them warrant for executing vengeance by 
means of their faith, he told them that this power over matter 
through faith was only possible to those who forgave all those 
who had offended them. 

They had not long entered the temple when a deputation from 
the Sanhedrin came to Jesus. It was now the policy of the 

157 



158 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

hierarchy to discredit Jesus with the people. Already, the 
multitude were somewhat disappointed because he had not im- 
mediately followed up his triumphant entry of Sunday by an 
overt act of revolution. The cleansing of the Temple on Mon- 
day had doubtless appeared to them so significant as to keep 
alive their hopes, but Tuesda}^ had come and there was no 
appearance as of any important step to be taken. The San- 
hedrin saw their opportunity to turn the chilled surprise of the 
populace into pronounced distrust, and they sent a deputation 
representing the three classes of which that body was composed, 
to inquire specifically into his claims. Referring to his accept- 
ance of the homage of the people, and especially to his 
cleansing of the temple, they asked by what authority he did 
these things. They tliemselves, the rulers and teachers of the 
people, did nothing which they could not justify by tradition or 
the ruling of some noted teacher of former days. 

One authority, however, the nation had through all its history 
acknowledged as paramount — that of prophecy. And there- 
fore now to make a clear issue which the multitude around 
could appreciate, he asked the deputation as to the nature of 
John's mission. The Baptist had evidently prophesied of him, 
had proclaimed him as the Messiah. Was John, or was he not, 
a prophet? The whole question of Jesus' authority lay here 
for those who could not recognize its deeper source. 

The deputation found tliemselves in a dilemma. They dared 
not outrage public feeling or stultify themselves by denying the 
Baptist's prophetic mission ; they would not admit it and with 
it acknowledge that Jesus had ample authority for his acts. 
Weakly and with bitter mortification they said they could not 
tell. Naturally, Jesus had no need to pursue the subject 
further. 

But the question gave opportunity for three parables by 
which, one after the other, he made their discomfiture the more 
complete. The first was of two sons : one, in whom they were 
to see the repentant sinners and publicans, though at first 



Christ'' s Authority Challenged, 159 

disobedient, yet afterward repented and obeyed ; the second, 
though like themselves professing obedience, yet utterly neg- 
lected his father's commands. The lesson was that it is better 
to repent and turn from sin than to profess a holiness which has 
no basis of obedience. 

The second parable, though more complicated, was no less 
clear in its meaning. The story of the Rebel Husbandmen was 
their own story in all its details, even down to the dark crime 
which (as they supposed, in secret), they were already plan- 
ning. Jehovah was the Householder who had planted his 
vineyard Israel under every circumstance favorable for fruit, 
and given it moral freedom as to results. Again and again his 
servants, the prophets, had been sent to receive the fruits, and 
the disobedient nation had beaten and stoned and killed them. 
As a last resort of mercy he had sent his own Son, and him, 
too, recognizing him as the Heir, they had wickedly conspired 
against, purposing to be henceforth independent of all allegiance 
except of their own will. What, in the nature of things, could 
be the end of such a people but destruction and the transfer of 
their privileges to those who would use them in a spirit of 
obedience? "God forbid!" was the answer of those who 
stood b}^ for they perceived the terrible meaning of such a 
decision. 

The deputation were roused to fury by this parable, so mani- 
festly spoken against them. They would gladly have arrested 
him on the spot and so silenced him, but they dared not, for 
nothing that he had yet said had in any degree turned the cur- 
rent of popular feeling against him. All that they could do 
now was to leave him and go away. 

Then Jesus spoke the third parable — that of the Marriage 
Feast of the King's Son. It was in general setting not unlike 
one that he had once before spoken (Luke 14 : 15-24) , but its 
purport was far otherwise. That was a parable of grace ; this 
of judgment. No one is to presume so far upon the mercy 
'^ of God as to think that because he is called by him he may 



160 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

dispense with the attempt to seek holiness. This is the fatal 
mistake made by all who do not realize that salvation is salva- 
tion from sin. It was the mistake of the Jewish nation, who 
because they were the Chosen People, felt no obligation to sub- 
mit themselves to the manifest will of God. The time was no 
longer a time for the proclamation of the wideness of Grod's 
mercy. The hour of decision was at hand. Each one for 
himself must put on the garment which would bring him into 
harmony with the will and purpose of God, or be cast into the 
outer darkness. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

JESUS' LAST CONFLICT WITH THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. 

Matt. 22 : 15—23 : 39 ; Mark 12 : 13-40 ; Luke 20 : 20-47. 

THE hierarchy had been baffled and put to confusion, but 
all the more were they determined to make Jesus appear 
wrong. In secret they decided on their next step, which was 
a new endeavor to force him to pronounce for a revolution, for 
the establishment of a temporal Messianic kingdom. Ouce let 
him so pronounce and they could secretly denounce him before 
Pilate and bring about his execution without -risk of turning 
popular feeling against themselves. They therefore sent some 
of their younger disciples, with some of the Herodian party, 
who claimed that Herod was the lawful theocratic ruler of the 
nation, to pretend that they were troubled with conscientious 
scruples as to paying tribute to Caesar. Jesus was a good man 
and afraid of no one. He could tell them : Was it lawful or 
was it not lawful ? 

He saw at once their design to force him to speak openly 
for a revolution. The reiterated teachings of his whole public 
ministry had been that the kingdom of God is not a temporal 
kingdom ; the Messiah is not a mere temporal King. Calling 
for a piece of the tribute money, and pointing to the image of 
Caesar stamped thereon, he showed them that they had them- 
selves acknowledged his authority by using his money, but that 
this in nowise infringed upon their allegiance to God. The 
powers that be are ordained of God. To render unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's would not prevent them from render- 
ing to God the things that are God's. 

They had failed utterly to embroil him with Rome, but the 
pretext was too good not to be used ; at his trial before Pilate 

161 



16^ The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

they did accuse him of the very thing he had distinctly refused 
to say (Luke 23:2). 

Having failed with the Herodians, the Sanhedrin now put 
forward some of the Sadducean party — the free thinkers, who 
were in general the priestly and wealthy faction of the govern- 
ing body — to attempt to discredit him with the people. The 
question was as to the Levirate marriage, the law which had 
been made to prevent the lapsing of several estates into the 
hands of a single heir, with the accumulation of large landed 
properties. The hypothetical case proposed was a reductio ad 
absurdum of this law, but Jesus was not concerned to explain 
or apologize for the law. He took up the issue presented as to 
the possibility of a resurrection and the character of the spirit 
world, and from the Books of Moses, a part of the Scripture 
which alone the Sadducees considered authoritative, he showed 
them the witness to the resurrection, since the God of Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob is the G-od of the living and cannot be the 
God of the dead. 

The answer was pleasing to the Pharisaic party, who, even 
though bent upon his destruction, were not above rejoicing in 
the discomfiture of their rivals. " Master, thou hast spoken 
beautifully," ejaculated one of the Scribes. 

Now it was the turn of the Pharisees. The Herodians had 
tried to entangle him with a question of politics, the Sadducees 
with a question of speculative philosophy, they would put to 
him an ethical test — Which is the great commandment in the 
law? Which of God's commandments is it most important to 
obey? 

Such a question has no answer, and Jesus did not reply to it. 
But beginning with that Shema, or creed, which was the first 
religious lesson of the infant Israelite, " Hear, O Israel, the 
Lord, thy God, is one Lord," he added that which is at once a 
summary and an interpretation of the first table of the com- 
mandments : " Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy 
heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind." This was 



Jesus' Last Conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees. 163 

the grent, the first commandment, but there was a second like 
unto it, which in like manner summed up the commands of the 
second table : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In 
this answer there was absolutely nothing that they could lay 
hold of. One Scribe, perhaps he who had before been impressed ' 
with the beauty of Christ's words (Luke 20:39), was moved 
to speak in words of approbation, not only warm, but intelli- 
gent (Mark 12 : 32-34), and received from Jesus the approving 
remark, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 

There was no one who durst again test him with questions. 
But Jesus now had a question for them : What and who in their 
opinion was the Messiah? Whose Son was he? They had 
their answer ready, " The Son of David." But if so, how was 
it that David called him Lord, as the one hundred and tenth 
Psalm indicates ? Those words (Matt. 22 : 42) show a higher 
reverence, a more exalted homage than any man gives to his 
son, however dignified. 

The question might well have puzzled those who did not know 
the repeated teachings of Jesus that the Messiah must be the 
Son of God. These Pharisees knew those teachings, they 
understood perfectly well now the import of the passage, but 
they would not answer, for to do so must have been to own 
him Messiah and divine Son of God. And so they answ^ered 
not a word. 

But there were multitudes in that temple court who heard 
him gladly and believed in him, though so soon to fall away 
from him for a time through cowardice. To them he turned, 
and to the Twelve who stood beside him, with a warning against 
the deeds of the Scribes and Pharisees, but not their words, 
adding a succession of awful denunciations. 

It was not because Jesus knew that his doom was sealed, 
and nothing that he could now say could make it worse, that 
he thus let loose the vials of his wrath. It was in love that he 
thus spoke — in love of the great multitude who believed on 
him, upon whom, in a few short weeks or months, the terrors 



164 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

of persecution would be unchained, and the deliberate choice 
offered which a day or two hence they would show themselves 
so painfully unfitted even to consider. Later, " when new 
divine deeds should call them to make a new decision," they 
would remember the picture he now presented of those Scribes 
and Pharisees who had been their blind guides, and from whom, 
for their own salvation, they must gain strength to break away. 
Then they would remember what was his judgment of them, 
and their eyes would be opened to see their true Leader in 
the crucified Jesus, not in the Scribes and Pharisees and 
priests. 

The woes now pronounced upon the Scribes and Pharisees 
were, in general, for the one sin of hypocrisy, brought to light 
by Jesus under many var3HQg forms. Their petty and minute 
regulations made it impossible for men to enter the kingdom of 
heaven. By their quibbles about the gold of the temple and 
the gift on the altar they had destroyed the sense of sanctity 
and made everything alike profane ; by their minute regula- 
tions they had utterly overlaid the duties of real importance ; 
their whole effort had been to make people externally good, to 
cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, careless of the 
uncleanness that might lurk within. 

Thus they were themselves the very image of that which to 
every Jew was the type of all pollution, the resting-place of 
the dead. The blauk whiteness of the outside was the more 
ghastly reminder of the foul corruption that lay within, and 
such were these hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, with their 
fair exterior and their murderous hearts. Well might they 
build the sepulchres of the prophets and garnish the tombs of 
the righteous and say they would not have slain them as their 
fathers had done, had they lived in their days. It was all of 
a piece with their hypocrisy ; no one knew better than them- 
selves that they were the sons of them who slew the prophets, 
and that there was needed only that step which they were then 
meditating — the rejection and death of Jesus — to fill up the 



Jesus'' Last Oonjlict with the Scribes and Pharisees. 165 

measure of the fathers and bring upon this unhappy generation 
the accumulated punishment of all the sins of Israel. 

And at this prophetic thought the heart of Jesus overflowed 
with divine pity: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often 
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wing, and you would not ! " 
Her house was left unto her desolate indeed ! For, shortly 
after speaking these last words of love, our Lord left the 
temple, left his Father's house, never to return. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE CLOSE OF CHRISt's PUBLIC MINISTRY. 

Mark 12 : 41-44 ; Luke 21 : 1-4 ; John 12 : 20-50. 

rr^^HE chronological order of the events and teachings of the 
JL first three or four days of the Passover week will per- 
haps never be definitely settled. It seems difficult, however, 
to believe that those which are the subject of to-day's lesson 
did not occur before that last solemn lament of Jesus over and 
farewell to the Jewish people, with which our last lesson 
closed. 

The incident of the widow's two mites may have occurred 
some time in the course of the day of questionings (Tuesday, 
either after or before the question of the Herodians) ; that of 
the coming of the Greeks to Jesus seems to have occurred 
at the close of the previous day (Monday). 

At whatever time the first named of these incidents occurred, 
there is little doubt as to the place. " The treasury" (Mark 
12 : 41) was under one of the porticoes of the Court of the 
Women, the great court within the enclosure of the Court of the 
G-entiles, between it and the Court of the Priests. This Court 
was surrounded by colonnades, in front of which were placed 
thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes to receive the gifts of the 
people — one for offerings previously neglected, others for 
sacrifices, incense, wood for the poor, or voluntary offerings. 

Wearied as he must have been with the contention of sin- 
ners, our Lord, sitting under one of these colonnades, saw 
something that cheered him — a " pauper widow," Mark says, 
casting into the treasury the gift of two perutahs, small brass 
coins, of which two were w^orth about one-seventh of a cent, 
with a purchasing power at that time of perhaps twenty times 

166 



The Close of Chrisfs Public Ministry. 167 

as much. There were rich men casting in their large gifts 
with more or less of ostentation ; but in the sight of Grod, who 
does not need, but for his creatures' sakes accepts their 
offerings, the gift of the poor widow was the most truly 
valuable of all. To Jesus, so near to the hour of entire 
self-sacrifice, there must have been something especially com- 
forting in the sight of this poor woman who so gladly and 
unostentatiously gave all that she had, even all her living ; and 
he pointed his disciples to the poor woman as an example of 
the standard by which the true value of gifts to God must 
be measured. Not by what they will buy, for Grod needs 
nothing that our money can buy in the prosecution of his 
designs for the world, but by the spirit with which it is given, 
is measured the blessing it receives. 

If our Lord's commendation, "this poor widow cast in 
more than they all,''' meant anything, it meant that a small sum, 
with God's blessing, would prove more potent than all the rich 
gifts of ostentation. 

It was probably toward the close of one of these days in 
the temple that some strangers from the West, from Europe 
perhaps, who had been listening to Jesus' words afar off, felt 
impelled to beg for an interview with him. As the crowd was 
thinning, they came to Philip with the request, " Sir, we would 
see Jesus." These Greeks were proselytes to Judaism ; John 
says they were " among them that were wont to come up to 
worship at the feast." They shared the common expectation 
of a Messiah, but having recently adopted Jewish beliefs, 
they were less fettered by preconceived notions of what the 
Messiah ought to be and what would be the nature of his work 
than were the Jews in general. 

Evidently Philip saw something significant in the request, 
for he consulted Andrew, who appears to have been a particular 
friend of his. And when these two disciples brought the 
request of the Greeks to Jesus, probably introducing them at 
the same time, they found that it gave him a mysterious joy. 



168 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

As if in the reverential approach of these G-entiles he saw- 
foreshadowed that distant day when all nations should be 
discipled, he uttered the triumphant words, "Now is the 
Son of Man glorified ! " Tlie Son of Man. At the death of 
Lazarus he had said that the Son of God would be glorified 
by it ; then it was the life-giving power of the Father that was 
manifested ; here the self-sacrificing love of the Messiah as 
man^ for only by the sacrifice of his human life could sal- 
vation come to the Gentiles. His life on earth belonged to the 
Jews ; only by being lifted up from the earth could he draw 
the nations of the world to him. The reference here, as in 
the parable of the Good Shepherd, is not to a mediatorial 
death, but to its element of self-sacrifice. So when he spoke 
of the grain of wheat, it was not as a figure of the resur- 
rection, as the Greeks understood it in their myth of Ceres 
and Persephone; but of the absolute surrender of the indi- 
vidual life for the sake of a larger and more abundant life — 
for the life of the many. Then as the dark vision of the 
death that must precede that larger life swept over him, his 
soul (not his heart, see John 14:1 — his affections but not 
his will) was troubled, and, as in a foretaste of Gethsemane, 
he exclaimed, "Father, save me from this hour!" Yet he 
would not draw back ; it was the Gethsemane prayer in another 
form : " For this cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify 
thy name." The prayer was wonderfully answered. To his 
spiritually attuned ear there came a voice from heaven saying, 
" I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." Some of 
those who stood there heard only a noise, like the beast who 
hears the human voice ; they thought it thundered. Others, 
with a higher spiritual intuition, like a well-trained dog (as 
Godet says), recognized that words had been spoken, though 
what words they knew not ; they thought an angel had spoken ; 
and Jesus told them it was for their sakes, and prophesied of 
his death in words by which the Jews often spoke of death. 
Then turning perhaps toward the setting sun, he added, 



The Close of Chrisfs Public Ministry, 169 

" Yet a little while is the light among you. While ye have the 
light believe on the light that ye may become the sons 
of light." 

What follows in John (12:37-43) is his final summing up 
of the events of these last days. Though he had done so 
many signs among them, they believed not. Yet their rejec- 
tion, though official, was not total. Many even of the rulers 
believed on him ; others evidently besides Nicodemus and 
Joseph (Luke 23 :51), arid only a time-serving cowardice pre- 
vented their standing up for him (John 12 : 42, 43). 

The next paragraph (vss. 44-50) was an utterance of Jesus 
at some time not specified. They are the last clear proclama- 
tion of the fact that he is the revelation of God, and that his 
mission was a mission, not of judgment, but of salvation ; a last 
clear teaching that eternal life is his who is in harmony with 
the goodness of God, whose standards of right living are his 
commandments. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

JESUS AND THE FOUR ON THE MOUNT OP OLIVES. 

Matt., Chs. 24, 25; Mark, Ch. 13; Luke 21 : 5-38. 

rT"^HREE weeks ago we studied the last words of our Lord in 
_L the temple, the pathetic lament with which he closed his 
stern denunciations of the Scribes and Pharisees. Our present 
lesson follows close upon that passage. It was on going out 
from the Temple for the last time (Mark 13 : 1) that his disci- 
ples called his attention to its massive stones and splendid 
architecture. This magnificent temple of Herod was far more 
splendid architecturally than that of Solomon had been. Its 
architecture was strongly influenced by that of Greece, and its 
colonnades and porticoes were pure Corinthian ; only the temple 
proper, the comparatively small inner shrine, was after the 
Jewish model. No wonder the disciples were impressed by its 
beauty and solidity. They believed till long after this that the 
Jewish ritual and worship were to be those of the Christian 
Church. How astounded must they have been to hear Jesus' 
reply, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another 
that shall not be thrown down." 

The full moon of the vernal equinox was already rising as 
they climbed the steep ascent of the Mount of Olives and 
rested upon a point that overlooked the city. As he seated 
himself there, a little apart from the Twelve, absorbed, it 
would seem, in painful thought, the four upon whom appar- 
ently his words had made the deepest impression drew near 
and began to ask the meaning of those words of his, and 
how they should know when the doom against the temple 
would be fulfilled. To their question Jesus answered in the 
solemn discourse given by Mark in his thirteenth chapter, 

170 



Jesus and the Four on the Mount of Olives. 171 

and with some important variations by Matthew (ch. 24) and 
Luke (ch. 21). 

To their request for a " sign," Jesus made no definite answer. 
He gave, indeed, no view of the future which can in any sense 
be called historical, or from which we can wring any hints as 
to the date of what Matthew calls " the end of the world." 
Indeed, he expressly said (Mark 13 : 32) that he himself did 
not know it, that it is one of the things beyond the limits of 
the knowledge of the Son of man. Nor is this a matter with 
which men are to be concerned. What they are to be concerned 
with is their own conduct, and this discourse, difficult as it is 
to understand, and utterly impossible, indeed, if we try to con- 
struct a scheme of history from it, is very clear in its practical 
teaching as to conduct, leading up to the emphatic presentation 
of the necessity of constant, faithful watchfulness, and most 
of all, to the fact that it is the urgent duty of Christ's disciples 
to preach the G-ospel. 

The conditions under which they were to preach would 
require this steadfast watchfulness. There would be many 
rising up with false signs and false promises of deliverance 
(vss. 5-7) ; there would be danger to the infant Church from 
the decay of faith ; there would be persecutions. And history 
has shown us that all these things occurred in the life time of 
the Apostles. Though no pseudo-Messiah actually appeared 
between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem 
(a.d. 69) — there were very many after that — yet the war 
with Rome which ended in that terrible calamity was actually 
brought about in part by the development of a powerful Mes- 
sianic sentiment. The Jews had rejected Jesus, and now, with 
no Christ to lead them, they suddenly and madly resolved upon 
achieving a Messianic condition and kingdom ; and this great 
upheaval of feeling brought about the war in which occurred 
the most terrible siege and the most awful destruction of a city 
and its inhabitants recorded in history. 

Long before that time the disciples of Jesus would have 



172 ' The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

experienced persecution. They were to be delivered up to 
councils, the local Sanhedrins of the towns and villages, and 
before still more august authorities called to suffer for their 
faith. One chief purpose of this long discourse of warning is 
to assure them that neither by their persecutions nor by their 
death will the cause of truth be jeoparded. They need not be 
anxious lest in their terror or. their ignorance they might on 
such occasions fail to bear a true and efficient witness ; the 
Holy Spirit would be with them in that hour (Mark 13 : 11), 
and though their confession might not avail to save their own 
lives, the truth was safe ; it would be given to them in the hour 
of persecution or of martyrdom to be efficient witnesses for 
Jesus. 

The description of the age of persecution closes with an 
apocalyptic vision of the end of the world ; a form of descrip- 
tion very much used by the Jewish writers from the time of 
Daniel, and of which what we call Apocryphal literature gives 
many interesting examples. To us, with our Western nine- 
teenth century modes of thought, such descriptions are nearly 
unintelligible ; we may be very sure they sounded quite differ- 
ently to the Apostles, a great part of whose reading consisted 
of such literature. 

The parable of the Ten Virgins was spoken at this time to 
teach the necessity of constant vigilance and a state of perpet- 
ual preparation. The five wedding attendants who by slothful- 
ness and negligence of a simple duty found themselves unpre- 
pared at the Bridegroom's coming, and therefore shut out from 
his marriage supper, were in intention faithful, but they had 
lost the interest, the alertness, of the early hours of service. 
It is not enough to be numbered among the friends of the 
Bridegroom, not enough to intend to serve him when the proper 
hour arrives. We must be always ready, always alert, doing 
with zeal and earnestness lohatever he requires of us, though 
that may be only to tarry inactive and keep our lamp burning 
bright. 



Jesus and the Four on the Mount of Olives. 173 

The parable of the Talents which immediately followed was 
meant to teach another aspect of the same truth ; the spirit in 
which the service should be performed which has been com- 
mitted to us. In some respects it is like that of the Pounds, 
told a few days before on the way from Jericho to Jerusalem, 
but the one pouud given to each is a figure of the grace of 
Grod which is given to every one ; here the gifts are of vary- 
ing values and signify the special trust with which each one is 
endowed. To each of us, according to his capacity, mental, 
moral, physical, are given five talents, or two, or one ; for each 
we shall be held to strict account on our Lord's appearance, 
and not to use them to the best possible advantage is as truly 
sin as to misuse them ; to have no interest in the profit of our 
Master, the furtherance of his plans, is as truly sin as to work 
against those interests. 

The teachings of this memorable evening — Wednesday in 
Passion Week — were closed with a prophetic parable of the 
Last Judgment, when all will be judged by our Lord Jesus 
Christ — not, we must notice, tried by him, but judged in 
accordance with the results of that long trial — life. The 
obvious teaching of this passage, which we too much forget, 
is that the basis of that judgment is not what men have 
believed, not what they have felt of spiritual uplift or of love 
to Jesus, but how they have dealt with their fellow-men, whom 
Jesus so loved as to give his life for them, whom he so loves 
that to perform a service to the meanest criminal — to one in 
prison — is the same as to have done it to him. Not our creed, 
not our acts of worship, not our professions of devotion, not 
even our gifts of money, though these cost us much self-sacri- 
fice, but our personal service of the poor, the sick, and the 
wicked, is the test of Christ's approval of those who profess 
his name. 



CHAPTER XXXVI J. 



THE LAST SUPPER. 



Mark 14 : 12-31 ; Luke 22 : 7-38 ; John 13 : 1-30, 36-38 ; 
Matt. 26:17-35. 

THE difference between the date of the Last Supper of 
Jesus with his disciples, given by the Synoptics and that 
given by John, is very evident to the general reader ; the former 
writers apparently assert that it took place at the very time of 
the passover, and was indeed the Passover. We may observe, 
however, that all three Synoptics (Matt. 26 : 17 ; Mark 14 : 12 ; 
Luke 22 : 7) distinctly speak of the day as that of unleavened 
bread, and both Leviticus (23 : 5, 6) and Numbers (28 : 16-18) 
make a distinction between the Passover day and the feast day. 
Though it is not such a distinction as serves to remove our 
difficulty, it sufficiently proves the existence of usages which 
we do not perfectly understand, and of customs varying per- 
haps at different times. We may not improperly gather from 
Luke 22 : 15 that this Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples 
was purposely taken at a time not customary ("1 have desired 
to eat this passover with you before I suffer''). In any case, 
we cannot doubt that John is accurate in fixing the day as before 
the feast of the Passover (John 13 : 1) ; this is evident from 
the minuteness with which, from his memory as an e3^e-witness, 
he details the succession of events, and also because it is 
inconceivable that the Pharisees, with their scrupulous insist- 
ence on literal ceremonial obedience, should have profaned 
their most sacred feast day by sending the high priest's guard 
to arrest Jesus, and by the councils, the business, the hurry- 
ings to and fro which were connected with his prosecution and 
condemnation. Such action would ill have become those who 

174 



The Last Supper. 175 

condemDed Christ for his work of beneficence on the Sabbath 
day. 

The sacred feast was shared by the Twelve alone. Not even 
his mother and the beloved Bethany family and the women 
whose faithful ministry was even yet not ended, were admitted. 
There were two reasons for this : the Lord's last acts, his last 
words of counsel and prayer, must be of a nature adapted pre- 
cisely to the needs of those who were to carry on his work and 
to none others ; and then there was the necessity of secrecy. 
Already the betrayer had made his secret compact with the 
hierarchy to give up his Lord into their hands, and it is very 
evident that Jesus had made arrangements with a trusty friend 
in Jerusalem to provide a room of whose whereabouts even his 
most confidential disciples were ignorant. 

The preparations were all made, and Jesus with the Twelve 
sat down to supper. His first words (Luke 22 : 15) were of 
the great longing he had felt to take this festal meal with them 
before his sufferings ; before the next one all must be fulfilled. 
Even with the sad premonition of his sufferings ringing in their 
ears, the disciples began to dispute as to precedence (vs. 24), 
doubtless from the strong desire each felt to be next his Lord 
at this solemn feast, but with a love deeply tainted with selfish- 
ness. Jesus did not rebuke them ; on the contrary, after 
reminding them that he who served most was really chief (vss. 
26, 27), he spoke lovingly of their loyalty to him (vs. 28), and 
told them of the glory and honor awaiting them in his kingdom. 

His love for them indeed grew stronger as the time of trial 
came (John 13 : 1, loved them to the uttermost). Just because 
the near approach of his hour made him the more vividly con- 
scious of his glorious origin and destiny, his tenderness for 
his oivn increased. Therefore, he gave a new and more perfect 
manifestation of his deathless love in an act the more significant 
because he knew (vs. 2) that his betrayer was in the little com- 
pany ; he arose from table and girded himself as a servant and 
washed their feet. 



176 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

This act was not a lesson of humility. Humility is a Chris- 
tian grace, but it is not the fundamental law of the IdDgclom. 
Far less is it an illustration of the wondrous condescension of 
our Lord. It is a grave error which teaches that albeit Jesus 
was aware of his high origin and destiny, he performed such 
an act of service. Albeit? nay, it was because he knew all this. 
It is knoioing that all things are given into his hands, and that 
he came forth from God and goeth to God, that he riseth from 
supper and prepares himself, as a servant, for menial service. 
The act is one of glorious harmony, not of startling contrast. 

Until he came to Peter not one of them had thought of put- 
ting into words the perplexity he might have felt ; but Peter's 
impetuosity of feeling rushed into expression. Lord, thou I my 
feet ivashest I Never in all his life before had he so deeply felt 
the majesty of his Lord ; not even at the first moment of start- 
ling self-revelation (Luke 5 : 8) had he so realized the wide 
distance between himself and his Master. But he was far 
enough from apprehending the really antipodal nature of that 
distance. It was because Jesus took upon him the form of a 
servant, therefore, in the very nature of things, God hath highly 
exalted him (comp. Matt. 18 : 4). 

Of course Peter, when once he caught a glimmering of his 
Lord's meaning, rushed to the opposite extreme; from "Not 
while the world lasts shalt thou wash my feet ! " to " Lord, not 
my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Is washing 
indeed a condition of fellowship with his Lord? Then the more 
of it the better. The writer of this chapter well understood 
the impulsive, loving nature of Peter. Still, neither he nor the 
others understood the meaning of Jesus' act, nor could answer 
the question with which, having once more sat down among 
them, Jesus broke the impressive silence, " Do ye understand 
what I have done unto you ? " 

No, they did not understand, nor has the world, in nineteen 
centuries, yet understood the law of the kingdom of life. 
Christian eyes are still blind to the dignity and beauty of 



The Last Supper. 177 

service. A world in which " I am among you as he that serv- 
eth," shall be the patent of real nobility, in which honor and 
respect and love, yes, and efficiency, are gauged by that law, 
is simply inconceivable to the best of us as anything more than 
a vague vision. Yet heaven, we must believe, is such a world, 
and earth, when truly Christianized, will be just such a world, 
if it be not, indeed, heaven. We must observe that Christ does 
not say much more, then, but also, ye ought to wash one another's 
feet. Not our inferiority but our likeness to him liiakes such 
action a duty. It was his very divinity and authority which 
made service the law of his existence as it is of God's: "Ye 
call me the 'Master (the Teacher) and the Lord, and ye say well, 
for I am. If I, then, the Lord and the Master, have washed 
your feet, ye ought also " to do such things, emulating his 
example who has shown what is the highest type of life. 

The Paschal meal began ; the words of blessing, the sharing 
of the first cup, the breaking of " the bread of affliction," and 
distributing of the lamb — "the body of the Passover." And 
the shadow, not of anticipated suffering, but of the disloyalty 
of a friend, grew dark over the Saviour, and he groaned, 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray 
me." Each heart, conscious of weakness yet warm in love, 
prompted the agonizing question, not, " Is it he? " but " Is it 
I? " Only Judas did not ask. 

The doubt was too dreadful to be borne by one so undisci- 
plined as Peter. He made a sign to John, who reclined next 
to Jesus, to ask who it was. The question was asked and 
answered in an undertone, and no one else understood the 
meaning of the roll of thin bread dipped in the bitter sauce 
and handed to Judas. But it stirred his conscience — did 
Jesus really know? " Is it I, Rabbi?" he muttered, and Jesus 
answered that it was. From that moment it was intolerable 
for him to remain longer. Satan took full possession of the 
heart now abandoned to evil (John 13 : 27). A word of per- 
mission from Jesus, understood only by himself, and he turned 



178 The Life of the Lord JesuS. 

his back upon the Light of the world and went out into the 
night. The convenient time had come (Mark 14:11); he 
would find the high priest and ask for the temple guard and 
some Roman soldiers to make the arrest. His going out lifted 
the dark shadow from the soul of Jesus, and he came out into 
the light of the glory that should follow his sacrifice (John 13 : 
31). He gave them his last command — to love one another, 
not according to the Golden Rule (Matt. 7 : 12), but according 
to the love wherewith he himself loved them. He told them 
that he was going where they could not follow, warning Peter 
that far from dying for him he would soon deny him, and then, 
the supper being over, the third cup, the cup of blessing, was 
drunk, and Jesus once again took bread and broke it and 
passed it to his disciples, as a token of his body, and the 
fourth and last Passover cup as a token of his blood, bidding 
them do this in remembrance of him. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

OUR lord's farewell discourses. 
John 13 : 31-35 ; Chs. 14-17. 

OUR Lord had revealed himself to his disciples as perfect 
Love by deeds (John, ch. 13), showing that true love is 
utter unselfishness, boundless diffusion, a fountain of life, a 
source of blessing. He next revealed hiniself as perfect Love 
by words of counsel and hope (chapters 14-16), and of prayer 
(ch. 17), bringing them into communion with the Father 
through his own communion with him. 

Judas had been dismissed and had gone out into the night ; 
the commemorative Supper had been eaten, and Jesus turned 
to bis own and spoke of his approaching glory, and put into 
words his former act, giving the new commandment of the 
Kingdom, the law of love which his own death would interpret. 
Peter interrupted with a question about his going away and a 
profession of entire devotion, and was met by the terrible 
prophecy of his denial. How startling and overwhelming it 
was we may divine from the fact that from this time Peter, who 
had been very prominent all through the evening, spoke not 
another word. With the vivid consciousness of all that was 
before him made more vivid by this incident — seeing in the 
immediate future the bruised body and the shed blood and the 
awful consciousness of a whole world's sin — our Lord's heart 
went out in the desire to comfort and strengthen and warn, not 
only the crushed and amazed Peter, but the others, bewildered 
and startled by all that had taken place. " Let not your heart 
be troubled," he said, assuring them, in spite of all that was to 
come, that their true ground of confidence was not to be 
shaken. " Believe in God ; in me also believe." The comfort 

179 



180 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

is that he is goiog to the Father, and the profound significance 
of this fact. 

It is not intended that in this course of lessons we thoroughly 
study the deep meaning of our Saviour's teachings ; at a later 
period we may hope to take up such a course of study. Here 
it is simply the outline of thought in these four marvellous 
chapters that we want to discern. The significance of the fact 
that the source of comfort is not in the continued earthly com- 
panionship of Jesus, but in his going to the Father, is brought 
out in three conversations, with Thomas, with Philip, and with 
Judas Lebbseus, and further developed by the law of the pro- 
gress of revelation: its condition, obedience (14: 23, 24), its 
mode, the illumination of the Holy Grhost, and the endowment 
of the peace of God (vss. 25-27). This part of the discourse 
closed with an appeal to them to so reciprocate his love for 
them as to rejoice that he was to enjoy so blessed a change as 
departure to the Father. Then the manner of his departure is 
touched upon — the ruler of the world cometh ; with the assev- 
eration which none but the one sinless Son of Man could make, 
that this ruler, the evil one, had nothing in him; that his perfect 
harmony with the will of God, his perfect conformity to abso- 
lute truth and goodness, left nothing on which the prince of 
darkness could lay hold. Yet as a proof of his love to the 
Father, and in accordance with the Father's commandment 
(which resulted from the love of God for the world, 3 : 16), he 
would submit himself, not to Satan, but to God, in giving up 
his life. 

The closing words of the fourteenth chapter, Arise, let us go 
hence^ clearly refer to a change of scene. It is impossible 
now to decide whether the words and the prayer which follow 
were uttered in that "upper chamber" after they had risen 
from table, or whether in some pause in their walk to the 
Mount of Olives. Perhaps the symbolism of the opening 
words of chapter fifteen was suggested by a sight of the fires 
in the vineyards^ where the prunings of the vines were being 



Our Lord^s Farewell Discourses. 181 

burned. There seems to be no reason why the words and 
prayer should not have been uttered in some sequestered spot 
between the house which they had just left and the brook 
Kidron. 

The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters properly form one 
section in three parts. In 15 : 1-10 the teaching is of the 
principle on which is grounded the keeping of the " new 
commandment" of Christ, the law of love. In the other two 
parts, the effect of the working of that law is shown. These 
are (vss. 11-27) to reveal the highest joy, that found in self- 
sacrifice, and (16 : 1-33) to preserve an unshaken faith through 
all the vicissitudes of life. 

In calling himself the true Vine, Jesus uses the word, as 
often before, in the sense not of the reverse of false, but of 
the real^ that which conforms to the ideal. The meaning of 
the parable is that Christ and the Church are organically one, 
his life is the life of every believer — every branch. Though 
apart from Christ the branch (vs. 8) can bear no fruit, yet, 
that vital union maintained, he has not to concern himself with 
fruit-bearing ; that takes place by a natural law ; to bring 
forth much fruit is the inevitable result of abiding in Christ. 
So prayer is answered (vs. 7) by a law as truly organic, for 
one mind, one will are in Christ and in him who abides in him, 
even as one life throbs through the veins of the vine and its 
branches. This fellowship with Christ is of the same nature 
as his fellowship with the Father, conditioned not on faith, not 
even on love, but on obedience, and this again in the very 
nature of things, for obedience is as much the law of being of 
one united to Christ as it is the branch's law of being to be 
obedient to the character of the vine. 

The application of this truth follows (vss. 11-27). The 
effect of this organic unity with Christ is first to create the 
highest and most perfect type of joy — that which inheres in 
self-sacrifice. The conflicting forces of the world and the 
Holy Ghost will be in very energetic opposition, but the testi- 



182 The Life of the Lord JesuS. 

mony of Christ which he shall ever bear will be the strength 
of his disciples for a perpetual witness bearing on their part of 
the real unity between themselves and 'their Lord (vss. 26, 27). 
The eighteenth verse of this chapter is the theme of the next 
part of this discourse, which is found in the sixteenth chapter, 
and is designed to maintain faith in the heart of the disciples 
during all the time that they shall be subject to these conflict- 
ing forces. The first fifteen verses give a clear statement of 
their condition under this conflict. The remainder of the 
chapter shows its ultimate result, the working out in them 
of the same joy which sustained their Lord in his conflict with 
sin, leading up to the shout of triumph with which, on the eve 
of his Passion, Jesus closes his last conversation with his own : 
In the icorld ye have tribulation^ hut he of good cheer ^ I have 

OVERCOME THE WORLD. 

It seems almost an act of sacrilege to attempt to interpret 
the words with which our Lord closed his discourse by com- 
munion with his Father. It contains the very essence and 
meaning of all prayer — not as supplication, but as com- 
munion, the highest form of intercourse between man and God. 

Though the communion of the Son with the Father is so 
perfect in this prayer, we still feel that Jesus is conscious of 
the presence of his disciples ; the prayer is for their comfort 
and strenojthenino^ as well as his own. He wanted them to 
recognize the future glory and joy that they might be prepared 
to endure the coming sorrow. 

The glory to which he looked forward was the saving of 
men (vs. 2, Revised Version " all flesh — that whatsoever thou 
hast given him, to them he should give eternal life"), and 
bringing them to true lif-e in sharing the life of God (vs. 8). 
He offered to his Father his earthly work, now potentially 
finished, and overleaping in mind the hours of human agony, 
looked forward now (vs. 5) to a new investiture as the Incar- 
nate Word with that "radiance of glorification" which as 
Eternal Word he had " beside the Father before worlds were." 



Our Lord's Farewell Discourses* 183 

Then followed the prayer for the Apostles, whose training had 
been the most important part of Christ's work. The disciples 
were God's in an especial sense, not by predestination to 
eternal life, but by a call to a special service. Often he 
prayed for the world (vs. 9), but not now — this solemn 
sacerdotal prayer was for his own, his disciples first and 
after them (vss. 20-26) for the Church in all ages. These were 
in the world and he was going to God (vs. 11) ; he tenderly 
appreciated that their danger lay in their failure in his 
absence to realize their own essential unity, that they were 
really one even as he and the Father are one. They were not 
of the world, they had been raised to the sphere in which 
Christ himself continually dwelt (vs. 16), and therefore they 
could be intrusted with a mission to the world (vs. 8). But 
for this they needed a special and potent consecration — to be 
sanctified. The word does not mean purified^ but made holy. 
Only the truth can make men holy ; it was by the power of 
the truth that Christ kept himself from contact with the world, 
being in it but not of it, as all his own should be. For their 
sakes Christ himself sanctified himself (vs. 19) ; for the reason, 
not that they may be saved, but that they may be Jioly, " that 
they themselves may be sanctified in truth." 

The prayer includes (vss. 20-26) all those who should 
believe on him through the word of his Apostles, those whom 
he sent into the world to testify to the truth. The same 
glorious possibility of union one with another is theirs through 
the same vital union with the true Vine which was the expe- 
rience of the Apostles. In these days of division, when 
earnest efforts after church union are conscientiously thwarted 
by many who believe that denominationalism is best and 
furthers the spread of the kingdom, let us all earnestly ask 
what is the meaning of this dying prayer of Jesus, " that they 
all may be one," and of the reason he gives for this prayer, 
''that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Do we 
indeed desire that the world mav believe ? Then let us hasten 



184 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

to bury our differences and seek for the true ground of union, 
our vital union with Christ, that all the world may see and 
believe that the love wherewith the Father loves the Son is in 
us, and he himself in us. * 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

OUR LORD IN GETHSEMANE. 

Matt. 26 : 36-56 ; Mark 14 : 32-52 ; Luke 22 : 39-53 ; John 18 : 1-12. 

ON the slopes of Mount Olivet, over against Jerusalem, 
there was an oil press, perhaps entirely unused, certainly 
not in use at this season of the year. Near it was a garden, 
or rather, an enclosed olive orchard. Gethsemane was a 
favorite retreat of our Lord when he desired to be apart from 
the thronging multitudes and alone with his disciples. Thither 
on that night in which he was betrayed he led the Eleven, 
after the Last Supper and the last counsels and the last high- 
priestly prayer. 

Of that midnight hour in Gethsemane it seems almost 
sacrilege to write. Who can enter into the mystery of that 
struggle when the tempter, having three years before departed 
from him till a favorable season (Luke 4:13), now returned 
for a final effort to compass the ruin of the human race ? As 
at that former time, he had made to pass before Jesus as in a 
vision all the kingdoms of earth and the glory of them, so now 
he doubtless brought home to him with horrible vividness the 
sorrow and the shame that were before him : the bitter agony 
of the cross, the infinitely more bitter agony of a full conscious- 
ness of a whole world's sin. 

Jesus had left his disciples at the gate of the garden 
with the sad injunction, " Pray that ye enter not into tempta- 
tion," and taking with him his dearest friends, Peter, James, 
and John, to watch — for he knew that Judas would shortly be 
there and he would not be taken unawares — he went on a little 
farther, " about a stone's cast," and throwing himself upon the 
ground, he poured out his soul in prayers and supplications with 

185 



186 The Life of» the Lord Jenus. 

strong crying and tears (Heb. 5:7), begging that the bitter 
cup might be spared him, yet in the same breath praying that 
the will of his Father might be done. Never more truly man 
than when he was about to enter upon the supreme act of the 
divine redemption of a sinful world, with no thought of giving 
up the great undertaking for which he had come into the world, 
his human soul yet reached out to take hold of the omnipotence 
of God. If it were but possible that some other way might be 
provided ! 

Three times the prayer was repeated, and by degrees the 
dark cloud of temptation was dissipated by the sheer force of 
a will in perfect harmony with God's will ; the answer came, 
not in the provision of some other way of saving the world, 
but in a clearer realization of his oneness with the Father, and 
the essential correspondence of his human will with the divine 
will : My Father, if this cannot pass aivay except I drink it., 
thy will be done. 

His three nearest friends, overcome with the excitement and 
bewilderment of the evening, and not suspecting the meaning 
of Judas' absence, were not watching with him as he had sadly 
requested; they were "sleeping for sorrow" (Luke 22:45). 
Twice he had come back to them, his sore heart longing for 
sympathy, and had found them so. Yet he did not upbraid 
them. "Sleep on now, and take your rest," he said — he 
knew that there would be little sleep for them in the coming 
hours. The third time, as he came, he saw the glancing of 
lights among the trees and heard the tramp of many feet, and 
he waked them with the words, "Arise, let us be going; 
behold, he is at hand that betrayeth me." 

Often before this Jesus had met (as by appointment) his dis- 
ciples here (John 18:2). It had been their place of rendezvous, 
whenever for any reason it had seemed wise that they should not 
all walk together through the streets of the city. Judas well 
knew where to lead his party of arrest. This consisted of a 
detachment of the cohort of Roman soldiers (stationed in the 



Our Lord in Gethsemane. 187 

Tower of Antonia, to keep order during the Passover season), 
with the temple officers, and a certain number, at least, of the 
members of the Sanhedrin (Luke 22 : 4, 52). The body was a 
formidable one ; it is evident, especially from the presence of 
the chief captain (chiliarch) of the cohort (John 18 : 12), that 
the Sanhedrin feared not only the resistance- of the disciples, 
but an attempt by the populace to rescue Jesus, or to prevent his 
arrest, and that they had succeeded in inspiring Pilate with this 
fear. It was because Judas knew how dense were the shadows 
under the trees, that, at the time of the Passover full-moon, he 
had seen to it that the arresting party were provided with 
lanterns and torches as well as with arms (vs. 3). 

Serene and confident after his agony, Jesus, knowing all the 
things that were coming upon him (vs. 4), stepped forth 
from the shadow of the trees and the circle of disciples, clus- 
tered around him with some confused purpose of protection, 
with the question, "Whom seek ye?" His action rendered 
needless the traitorous kiss of Judas. 

The reply, "Jesus, the Nazarene," showed contempt; they 
were certainly not prepared for Jesus' majestic answer, " I am." 
To Judas, who was betraying him, who had retreated after that 
useless, traitorous kiss, and " was standing with them," the 
words must have brought a rush of memory. He had heard 
them on that stormy evening on the lake (6 : 20), when to him, 
as to all the other eleven, they had spoken courage and calm- 
ness in exchange for terror and distress. He had heard them 
in Jerusalem, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when they had 
brought terror and rage to the hearts of the hating Jews 
(8 : 58) ; he had heard them that very evening (13 : 19), sitting 
for the last time in the little company of Chrisfs own, when 
they had spoken comfort and strength to all who heard them — 
to all but the one, who, having eaten bread tvith him, had lifted 
up his heel against him. If the majesty of the words was 
such, now, that those others who heard recoiled in terror and 
fell to the ground, with what awful weight must they have 



188 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

fallen upon the heart of Judas, who knew, as they did not 
know, what words of power they were ! 

Though the arresting party had gathered themselves up after 
their first shock of terror, the awe upon them forbade their 
taking further action. Jesus himself aroused them with the 
repeated question ; not because he would hasten into danger, 
but because he would save his disciples. They must definitely 
commit themselves as to whom they sought, that no pretext 
might afterward be found for the arrest of any other of the 
company. The event narrated by Mark (14 : 51, 52) shows 
that such a precaution was by no means needless. 

Their answer permitted him to draw the conclusion which he 
desired. Since they had been sent to arrest him only, he 
could stipulate that the others might go their way. At this 
the valor of Peter blazed up. Luke tells us that his hasty 
action was because he saw what would follow ; this vivid appre- 
hension of danger to his Lord, characteristic of a strongly 
imaginative mind, prevented his taking in, as the other disciples 
did, the import and purpose of Jesus' words. Luke also tells 
us where he got his sword, and the fact that it was unlawful to 
carry a sword on a feast day appears to be an undesigned testi- 
mony to the correctness of John in placing the death of Jesus 
on the day preceding the evening of the Passover. The high 
priest's servant was probably pressing forward with a zeal and 
assumption of importance, which rendered him peculiarly 
obnoxious to Peter. 

Little did Peter think how far he was from advancing his 
Master's cause by his ill-advised championship. Very little 
was wanting at this moment to deprive Jesus of the power of 
saying to Pilate, "If my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants have fought," and so of vindicating the 
true nature of his kingdom, the true purpose of his life on 
earth. Doubtless the prompt action of our Lord in healing 
the wound of Malchus was all that prevented an onslaught 
upon the disciples, which soon, night though it was, would 



Our Lord in Gethsemane. 189 

have aroused the populace, especially the strangers from Galilee, 
as ready as they had been on Palm Sunday to join in a popular 
demonstration, and so would have ended in a disastrous 
tumult. 

The Synoptics do not mention the binding of Jesus until 
after his examination before Pilate (Matt. 27:2; Mark 15 : 1 ; 
Luke does not mention it at all) . The strong impression made 
upon John, as last of all the eleven, perhaps, he " forsook him 
and fled," was of the whole party, the band and the chief 
captain and the officers of the Jews (John 18: 12), closing 
up around Jesus as they violently seized and bound him, evi- 
dently not yet relieved of their fear of some act of power on 
his part. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE TRIAL OF JESUS. 

Matt. 26 : 57—27 : 31 ; Mark 14 : 53—15 : 20 ; Luke 22 : 54-23 : 25 ; 
John 18 : 12—19 : 16. 

THE soldiers and temple officers who arrested Jesus had 
evidently received orders to take him first of all to the 
palace of Annas (John 18:13), the father-in-law of Joseph 
Caiaphas, the high priest. Annas was notable for subtle crafti- 
ness. It was his purpose, while waiting for the assembling of 
the hastily summoned Sanhedrin, to extract some confession 
from Jesus which could be used to his disadvantage on his trial 
before that body. He questioned Jesus therefore concerning 
his disciples and his teaching, endeavoring to extract from him 
something which would give ground for the accusation that he 
had formed a secret society inimical to the hierarchy or to 
Eome. But Jesus maintained that all his teachings had been 
spoken openly to the world and appealed to the public and to 
the rulers of the people, all of whom were acquainted with his 
teachings. The only answer was a blow from one of the 
attendants, the first of a long series of outrages upon the 
justice which should attend the examination and trial of a 
prisoner. 

Meanwhile, Peter and John had so far regained courage as 
to follow their Lord, and through John's acquaintance with the 
servants of Annas had gained entrance to the court of the 
palace. There Peter, asked if he were not one of Jesus' 
disciples, was again overcome with fear and denied it. 

From Annas Jesus was led to Caiaphas, in whose house, since 
the temple gates were now shut, the Sanhedrin was assembled, at 
least those members of it who could be trusted to come to ooe 

190 



The Trial of Jesus. 191 

conclusion. Only twenty-three of the whole number, seventy- 
one, were necessary for the validity of a sentence. We are ex- 
pressly told that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were not 
present (Luke 23:50; comp. John 19:39). 

It was unlawful to pass a criminal sentence on the day of 
condemnation, or for the Sanhedrin to sit on the Sabbath or on 
a feast day. We know that the former law was broken (the day 
counting from sunset) in the case of Jesus, who was sentenced 
the next morning after his arrest. This law might be broken 
with more impunity and less scandal than the other, as to hold- 
ing court on a feast day — a point which enters into the 
discussion of the day of Christ's death. 

Annas had found it impossible to fasten upon Jesus a charge 
of secret conspiracy, and nothing remained to the Sanhedrin 
but to attempt to convict him of public error. But here a 
difficulty arose in the factions into which that body was itself 
divided. Not to mention the radical differences between Phari- 
see and Sadducee, the minds of men were divided as to the 
character and work of the looked-for Messiah, and not less as 
to the character of Jesus' teachings and Messianic pretensions. 
All their determined search for false witnesses (Mark 14 : 55) 
resulted in nothing because of these conflicting views. The 
midnight hour and the necessity for secrecy (for they still 
" feared the people," Mark 11 : 32 ; 14 : 2) made it difficult to 
find many witnesses outside of their own number, and urgent 
as was the desire of all the council to condemn him, no two of 
them could agree as to the nature of his offence (vs. 56). 
The excitement of the council became ever more intense as 
their desire was thus baffled by themselves, until at last the 
high priest, almost beside himself with rage, sprang into the 
center of the room, where Jesus stood (vs. 60) before the 
semi-circle of his judges, and receiving no answer to his threat- 
ening question, he put to him the solemn oath, adjuring him by 
the living God to state definitely his claims. 

Up to this time the Lord Jesus had kept silence ; but this 



192 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

solemn appeal he would not refuse to answer. Did his judges 
realize the hideous irony of that appeal — that he, a prisoner at 
their bar, should resolve their doubt whether he were " the 
Christ, the Son of God" or no? Did they realize the awful- 
ness of his answer, what it meant for them and for all mankind ? 
I am; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
of power and coming with the clouds "of heaven. 

No, they did not realize it ; they only rejoiced that now they 
could convict him out of his own mouth. With all the pretended 
horror of rent clothes they adjudged him guilty of blasphemy, 
and then followed a scene of infamy, of dastardly indignity, too 
hideoLis to repeat (vs. &b ; Luke 22 : 63-65). 

And while this was going on, Peter, warming himself beside 
the glowing brazier in the court, had twice again denied his 
Ldrd. And as the cock crew a band of guards appeared in the 
courtyard leading Jesus, with every mark of insult, from the 
audience of the high priest to their guard-room, to await the 
morning. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. That 
look broke his heart ; he remembered the warning, remembered 
his protestations, and overwhelmed with repentance and shame, 
he went out and wept bitterly. 

We must keep constantly in mind the need of haste in the 
proceedings of the Jews, who exceedingly dreaded a rescue of 
Jesus by the people, especially the Galileans, present in large 
numbers at the feast. At the earliest possible moment, as 
soon as it could be called day (Luke 22 : 66 ; Mark 15 : 1), they 
hurried Jesus to the temple and there reconvened as a legal 
body to go through the form of his condemnation. This done 
they led Jesus to Pilate for the necessary ratification of their 
decree. Pilate, who had granted the Roman soldiers for the 
arrest, had doubtless been quite willing to agree to despatch 
the business as early as was lawful, nothing being so much 
dreaded b}^ the Roman governors as an uproar among the 
people at a festival season, when the city was overcrowded. 

There was a man not far off. watchino- with tortures of 



The Trial of Jesus. 193 

remorse unspeakable, the result of the long night's trial. 
Hardly had Jesus been led away to receive bis sentence from 
Pilate when the wretched creature rushed into the Sanhedrin 
court, and throwing down the thirty pieces of silver, groaned, 
I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. Did he hope 
even then to repair his awful wrong? The cold sneer of the 
priests, "What is that to us? See thou to it," showed him his 
mistake. And he, too, went out, not like Peter, to weep 
bitterly and repent of sin, but in the blackness of despair to 
hang himself and go to his own place. 

Pilate, the Roman governor, is shown by history to have 
been a most unrighteous, arbitrary, and cruel man. He had 
many times outraged the religious and national feelings of the 
Jews, and while they hated and feared him, they also despised 
him ; more than once they had succeeded in overriding his 
authority by sheer force of mob violence. He was now in the 
magnificent new palace of Herod the Great, in the spacious 
park over against the temple hill. Thither shortly after six 
o'clock the company of Sanhedrists arrived, bringing Jesus 
under a strong guard and followed by a crowd, not of devout 
Passover pilgrims, but of the city rabble which always collects 
at such a sight. 

The most striking feature in the account of the trial of Jesus 
by Pilate, and the key of Pilate's whole conduct, is his endeavor 
to avoid the responsibility of convicting Jesus. He left no 
hopeful means untried to release him. All the Roman in him 
recoiled against condemning an innocent man, and of the 
innocence of Jesus he had from the first little doubt. He first 
tried to throw him back upon the Jews (John 18: 31). This 
failing, he grasped eagerly at the hint that Jesus was of 
Herod's jurisdiction, hoping to put off the responsibility upon 
the king (Luke 23 :5-7). Failing again in this, he resorted to 
the well established custom which granted the release of one 
prisoner as a token of respect to the sacred feast, and pro- 
posed that Jesus should be set free according to the custom. 



194 The Life of the Lord Jesus > 

It was of no avail. The Jews refused the Son of God, their 
own Messiah, and clamored for the release of the brigand and 
conspirator, Barabbas. 

Still actuated by his dread of condemning an innocent man, 
Pilate attempted to satisfy their enmity and hatred by inflicting 
upon Jesus the terrible and degrading punishment of scourging. 
Under this torture, so terrible that Cicero calls it the interme- 
diate death, many a condemned man has died. No formal judg- 
ment against Jesus had been pronounced, yet Pilate condemns 
him in his own interests to a part of capital punishment ! To 
such base truckling to the passions of the people, the repre- 
sentative of Roman justice has come ! 

It was with the hope of moving their hearts to pity, if not 
to justice, that Pilate caused Jesus to come out, wearing the 
crown of thorns and the garment of contempt with which the 
brutal soldiers had invested him, and after definitely pronounc- 
ing him to be " Not guilty" (John 19 : 4), presented him to 
them with the words that have rung through all the ages : 
"Behold the Man!" 

Those chief priests and officers who were there with the 
well-defined purpose of moving to their own end the passions 
of the populace, recognized the imminent importance of the 
moment, and with urgent voices cried aloud. Crucify^ crucify! 
Still Pilate would not yield. " Take him yourselves and cru- 
cify him," he said in contempt of their impotence, weakly 
adding that last protest of his conscience, "for I (the I is 
emphatic) find no crime in him." 

His words were a taunt : the Jews had no power to crucify 
a man. But, according to Roman custom, they could claim 
that their own law should be executed by the Roman power, 
and now they insisted on that right. They had before contempt- 
uously refused to make a special charge against Jesus (18 : 30), 
but now they are forced to make the charge which they most 
dread to make (19 : 7). This appeal failed, because it touched 
Roman superstition. What Son of the gods might not indeed 



The Trial of Jesus, 195 

be this strange Man, who through all indignities still maintained 
that striking majesty ? Pilate had before been afraid of con- 
travening justice ; now, hearing this word he was more afraid. 

Again he questioned Jesus privateh^, with the result that fear 
of condemning to death, not a good man merely, but a super- 
human personage, took possession of him. His resistance to 
the will of the Jews, which had up to this time been passive, 
now became active as he sought to release him (vs. 12). But 
the Jews perceiving why it was that the appeal to their own 
law had been futile, changed their tactics again, appealing to 
Pilate's basest fears : If thou release this Man^ thou art not 
Coesafs friend. 

At these words, which called in question his loyalty, he gave 
over the attempt to save this just man (Matt. 27 : 24) . Though 
he dreaded the unknown power that so surely manifested itself 
in Jesus, he dreaded still more the well-defined danger into 
which any further effort to save him might bring himself. 
Causing Jesus to be brought before him, he had his judgment 
chair placed in the sight of the Jews, upon the mosaic pave- 
ment before the palace. They again broke forth into that 
loud cry, vehemently compelling by their clamor the cries of 
the populace, " Away, away ! Crucify, crucify ! " Once more 
came a taunting question from the governor (vs. 15). And 
they, sooner than acknowledge him whom their conscience must 
have confessed, made the deliberate disavowal of the life of 
Israel, of all that for centuries had kept Israel a people, the 
Messianic hope. The chief priests it ^ was, we are expressly 
told, who answered, "We have no king but Caesar." It was 
the last degradation. No need for Pilate to taunt them more. 
His courage even to attempt the release of Jesus had long been 
gone. Then, therefore, he delivered him unto them to be 
crucified. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE CRUCIFIXION AND BURIAL. 

Matt. 27 : 32-61 ; Mark 15 : 21-47 ; Luke 23 : 26-56 ; John 19 : 17-42. 

THE place where our Lord was crucified is not certainly 
known. It was outside the city (Heb. 13 : 12), yet near 
it (John 19 : 20), on a frequented road leading into the country 
(Mark 15 :21). This was in accordance with Roman custom. 
Though certainly not a hill, as pictures generally represent, it 
was a slight eminence of a rounded form, from whence came 
the name ; it is impossible to suppose that this was an allusion 
to the skulls of former executed criminals still lying there ; the 
Jews would not have permitted the remains of the dead to lie 
unburied. 

It was now about nine o'clock of a warm April morning, and 
Jesus was led forth to be crucified. Perhaps it was by way of 
striking terror into the heart of the Jewish mob which had so 
masterfully overcome the wishes of their governor, that Pilate 
had given orders for the execution of two condemned robbers. 
The procession, therefore, consisted of three condemned men 
carrying the crosses on which they were to suffer, the soldiers 
guarding them in front and on either side, and a great crowd, 
constantly augmented as they passed along the streets, bring- 
ing up the rear. There were others than the rabble in the 
crowd now ; many of Jesus' friends were there (Luke 23 : 27), 
but at this stage there was no possibility of a rescue. 

To one in such perfect health and with such power of self- 
mastery as Jesus, it mattered little that he had not tasted food 
since the Supper of the evening before ; but the night had been 
one of fearful strain on body, mind, and heart. Loving 
emotion, agonized conflict, taunts, insults, scourging, the 

196 



The Crucifixion and Burial. 197 

bitterness of rejection by his own, all had worn upon a frame 
as sensitive as it was perfectly organized, and now, staggering 
on beneath the weight of his cross, he fell to the ground, 
unable to go farther. A foreigner — a Jew of far-away 
Cyrene in Africa — came by, and the soldiers laid hands on 
him to share the sliameful load with Jesus. Between the two 
robbers, Christ, the King of men, was given the position of 
preeminence in suffering and shame, enduring that " most cruel 
and base punishment," as Cicero calls it, which was never 
inflicted except on slaves and the worst of criminals. It was 
a Jewish (not a Roman) custom to give to those who were 
about to undergo this dreadful death, a stupefying potion, 
decocted from narcotic plants, and there was a society of 
benevolent and wealthy women who made it their concern to 
see that this potion was never wanting. It was of this decoc- 
tion that Jesus would not drink (Mark 15:23). He would 
endure, in full consciousness, all that was laid upon him. 

John tells us that the superscription placed over the head of 
Jesus, written in Hebrew and in Romayi and in Greek, was 
drawn up by Pilate himself. Perhaps he worded it in derision 
of the Jews, thus for the last time wreaking his revenge on 
them for compelling him to a course which made him despise 
himself. Whatever the cause, the fact remains, that Jesus 
was thus proclaimed to all the world as King ; the three 
languages, which typically represent religion, culture, and the 
social order, being, in fact, the national, the general, and the 
official languages. 

Four soldiers would be required to perform the act of cruci- 
fixion ; perhaps there were four for each cross. The clothes 
of the sufferers belonged by immemorial custom to the exe- 
cutioners. Those of Jesus they began by dividing into four 
parcels, casting lots, Mark tells us, who should take what; 
casting a special lot for the tunic, the inner garment, which 
was more costly than usual, being woven in one piece, like that 
of the high priest. 



198 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

The excited tumult attending the act of crucifixion had 
subsided. As, their partition of the clothing ended, the sol- 
diers sat and watched him, those who up to this time had with 
agonized hearts been beholding from afar, now drew near and 
stood close beside the Cross. How many women were in this 
company is not certain. It is most probable that there were 
four, and that Mary of Clopas (wife or daughter) was not his 
mother's sister, but that the one so called was probably Salome, 
the mother of Zebedee's children. And now follows one of 
the most precious of all revelations of the human heart of our 
Lord. For the last time we are admitted to that unspeakably 
sacred fact in his human life, his relations with his mother. We 
have seldom seen her since that time, in the very beginning of 
his ministry, when with infinite tenderness he severed the close 
tie which had hitherto bound them together, and called her to 
a still more precious fellowship, in self-renunciation (John 
2:4). Now, in the moment of her bitterest pain, comes her 
unspeakable reward. Even in the hour when a boundless and 
all-embracing love was shown in the act of death for a lost 
world, she has her own personal part in his love. He thinks 
upon her, recognizes the sacred right of her motherhood, is 
moved not only by the knowledge that her grief is like no 
other grief, but also by a deep solicitude for her earthly wel- 
fare, and performs for her the last act of a true son, in 
providing for her future. He does it in the way that can best 
solace her sad heart, by placing her under the protection of 
the disciple whom he especially loves. 

After this followed thi-ee hours of darkness and of silence, 
broken by one utterance of indescribable anguish (Matt. 27 : 
45, 46). It was when this soul-agony was past that he became 
conscious of bodily pain, and said, I thirst, not as giving way 
to weakness, but knowing that all things are now finished, his 
ministry to the world ended. We are not told who they 
were who put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop and 
brought it to his mouth, whether the soldiers or his friends. 



The Crucifixion and Burial. 199 

Having shown by receiving the vinegar that life was not ex- 
hausted by suffering, he cried with a loud voice (Luke 23 : 46), 
not like that of one dying, the words. It is finished! They 
were words of triumph, of joy which it is impossible for us 
even to begin to understand. Finished, not only the long life 
of self-sacrifice, the long separation from his home in the 
bosom of the Father, from the glory he had with him before 
worlds were, but finished also the power of sin, the dominion 
of the evil one, the separation between men and the Father. 
Then, having till this time kept his head erect in token of 
voluntary and conscious acceptance of all that he was enduring, 
he bowed his head, and with the low breathed words of joyful 
confidence, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," he 
died. Not as yielding to death; death had no power over 
him ; but as One who, having conquered death, now retires 
from the field of conflict. 

The priests and rulers, zealous for the sanctity of the Sab- 
bath, begged Pilate that the sufferers might be put to death 
and not pollute the holy day by dying and being left unburied 
on the Sabbath. To this Pilate consented, and the legs of the 
robbers were broken. But when they came to Jesus he was 
dead already, and piercing his side with a lance to make sure, 
blood and water gushed out from the wound. Two members of 
the Sanhedrin, Mcodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who had 
probably not been summoned to the meeting which condemned 
him (see last Chapter), now went boldly to Pilate, begged for 
the body of Jesus, and receiving their request, reverently, 
though hastily, prepared the sacred body and laid it in Joseph's 
new tomb. But the Jews, remembering his words, that he 
would rise again on the third day, went to Pilate and begged 
that the stone which closed the sepulchre might" be sealed and 
a watch set. To this Pilate curtly consented, and they sealed 
the stone and set their watch. 

But the broken-hearted disciples and the women who loved 
him forgot his words and spent the Sabbath in hopeless grief. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

THE RESURRECTION MORNING. 

Matt. 28 : 1-15 ; Mark 16 : 1-11 ; Luke 24 : 1-12 ; John 20 : 1-18. 

IT was early on the morDing of the day after the Sabbath, 
that Sunday which Christians love to commemorate as 
Easter Day, that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, where, on 
the Friday evening previous, she had seen her Lord's body laid 
away. We know from Mark (16 : 1) and Luke (23 : 55—24 : 1) 
that she did not come alone, as would, indeed, not have been 
fitting at that early morning hour, while it loas yet dark (John 
20: 1). These friends of Jesus were bringing the spices and 
ointments they had prepared, that his rest in the tomb might be 
the more seemly ; they had no thought of his rising. But as 
they went, a sudden difficulty assailed them : who would roll 
away the stone from the door of the tomb? They did not 
know that at an earlier hour even than this there had been 
an earthquake, the stone had been rolled away, aud the watch, 
terrified, had forsaken their post and fled into the city (Matt. 
28:2,11). 

Probably Mary Magdalene's eager love led her, as the little 
company drew near the place, to outrun the slower pace of the 
elder women, so that she arrived alone at the door of the tomb. 
To her consternation, she found it open, the stone lifted out of 
the tomb, into the opening of which it had been fitted (John 
20:1). Her first and most natural thought was to hasten to 
the disciples with the dreadful news that the Lord's tomb had 
been violated. She runneth, therefore, by the most direct 
way, to the lodgings of Peter and John, probably in another 
part of the city from that whence she and the women had 
come. It is very impressive that John, who knew of Peter's 

200 



The Resurrection Morning. 201 

fall, was still in fellowship with him. So we shall find also 
that all the ten had patience with Thomas in his doubt (see 
next Chapter). How far the Christian Church of to-day is 
from imitating their example ! 

John remembered always how Peter therefore went forth, and 
the other disciple, and they were coming toward the tomb, hut they 
began to run, their excitement and agitation gaining upon them 
as they went, and how he himself, the younger and more 
active of the two, ran on more quickly than Peter, and came 
first to the tomb. It was not faith, but dread and dismay that 
winged their footsteps. 

Meanwhile the other woman had gone on to the sepulchre 
(Mark 16 : 4-8), and looking into the tomb, they saw an angel 
who told them that Jesus was arisen from the dead and that they 
go must and tell his disciples and Peter — adding his name doubt- 
less lest he should think himself excluded from the invitation by 
his denial of his Lord — that he was going before them into 
Galilee and they must join him there. Full of a joy that was 
half terror, they hastened from the sepulchre, not meeting John 
and Peter, who were probably running toward the sepulchre by 
another road. 

The difference in the characters of the two men is marked by 
their conduct there. John, bending forward s^i the opening of 
the tomb, sees the linen cloths lying, and stands still, putting 
together what he now sees, with many well remembered but 
half understood words of his Lord ; perhaps overwhelmed with 
grief at this new evidence that he is parted from the Master 
whom he loves. But Simon Peter, coming up a moment later, 
makes no pause for retrospect or grief, but enters precipitately 
into the tomb, just as, later, he plunges into the water to go to 
meet the Lord, the moment he learns that it is he (21 : 7). 

In the tomb Peter looks with a more intent gaze than that of 
John, and therefore not merely beholds the linen cloths lying, 
but also is able to distinguish that the napkin that was upon his 
head is rolled up and laid away in a place by itself, a sure 



202 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

evidence that the removal of the Lord's body had taken place 
without confusion or haste. Had the body been stolen, the 
grave clothes would not have been left behind, certainly not in 
this orderly manner. 

It may very probably have been in response to an exclamation 
or a call of Peter that John then went into the tomb. And 
what he saw there poured a sudden flood of illumination upon 
the garnered treasures of his memory. He believed; not that 
Jesus had been stolen away, but that he had risen from the 
dead. It was love which became the interpreter of the facts, 
for not even yet did they understand the /Scripture that he must 
arise from the dead. The divine necessity indicated in the 
word must had indeed been foreshadowed in all the events of 
our Lord's life, which showed that perfect love meant absolute 
self-sacrifice ; but the minds of not one of the disciples had 
yet been open to apprehend in what way he was indeed the 
fulfillment and interpreter of Scripture, nor were they until the 
descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts, ch. 2). 

We do not need to be told that the two disciples had outrun 
Mary Magdalene, nor that she had followed after them to the 
tomb. They had returned home before her arrival, and she 
continued standing at the tomb ivithout, and weeping., for as yet 
the thought that Christ was arisen had not occurred to her ; so, 
as she weeps, she bendeth forward as John had done into the 
tomb., too full of her grief, too much concerned to recover 
the body of her Lord even to be surprised at the apparition of 
two angels clothed in w^hite. They spoke asking her why she 
wept. Her answer seems to have reminded her that she must 
take some steps to find out what had been done with her Lord's 
body ; she turned abruptly, and her intent gaze fell upon the 
figure of One standing near. She did not know that it was 
Jesus, not because of any change in his appearance, but simply 
because her mind was not prepared to recognize him. "We 
see only that which we have the inward power of seeing." 
Though she did not recognize him, she took it for granted that 



The Resurrection Morning. 203 

he knew of whom she was thinking. Believing him to be the 
gardener, she naturally assumed that he was a friend ; she 
hoped it was he, not some enemy, who had home hinn 
hence, and she did not stop to measure her own strength, nor 
her power to take him away. If, for any reason, Joseph 
of Arimathea could not longer give hospitality to the precious 
dust, her love would see that it found a resting place. 

She had not recognized his face and form, but she knew the 
love that spoke in his voice, as all who love him recognize 
him when he calleth his own by name. The word which she 
uttered, Habboni! My Teacher! was doubtless the name by 
which she had often called him. John tells us that she said 
it m HebreiD (Revised Version), preserving thus not only the 
very expression that she used, but showing that this (Aramaic) 
was the language of intimate intercourse between Christ and 
his disciples. 

The faulty translation of John 20: 17 has been the cause 
of more confusion of thought than has attached to almost any 
other part of the description of our Lord's resurrection. Cling 
nob to me, he said, "as if the time for the perfection of inter- 
course between us had arrived. I have already told my 
disciples what must be the cohdition of our perfect and 
inalienable fellowship ; ye shall see me because I go unto the 
Father (16 : 16, 17). Only when I am ascended to my Father 
and your Father, to my God and your God, can I be always 
with you, with no barrier between our perfect intercourse. 
The flesh must be a barrier between us ; only in the Spirit can 
we be really at one." His admonition to her was not, there- 
fore, because of any peculiarity in the resurrection body, or 
any unreality in his appearance before his ascension. To those 
of a lesser faith or a less perfect love than Mary, to the other 
women (Matt. 28 : 9) and to doubting Thomas (John 20 : 27), 
he not only permitted, but invited precisely what he forbids to 
this dear friend. The highest honor which Jesus has to give 
to his own is the fellowship of his sufferings ; as, long before, 



204 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

he had admitted the woman who above all other women loved 
him most and understood him best, his mother, to the fellow- 
sliip of his perfect self-abnegation, so now he calls this other 
deeply loving woman to that higher fellowship of faith, which 
leans not on the bodily presence, but enters into the blessed 
and inalienable communion of the Spirit. 

And yet, as the flight to that high mount of privilege is a 
hard one for the newly- winged soul, he sets her the preliminary 
lesson, service : Go and tell my brethren. And she obeys in 
gladness of heart. She cometh and telleth the disciples^ I have 
seen the Lord; and how he had said these things unto her. 
She, too, had vs^on the victory that overcomes all sorrow — 
faith ; by it she had won a new power of Christian living and 
Christian service. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE RESURRECTION EVENING, AND THE DOUBTING THOMAS. 

Mark 16 : 12-14 ; Luke 24 : 13-43 ; John 20 : 19-25. 

IT was some time on Easter day, probably, that our Lord and 
Simon Peter met — the forgiving Master and the hum- 
bled and repentant disciple. Of that sacred private interview 
we have no account, though we have more than one reference 
to it (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5, comp. Mark 16:7), 
and we see its results both upon Peter and upon the other 
disciples in the leading part he afterward takes, even before 
the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1 : 15-22). 

Another most sacred interview took place, perhaps on this 
day, perhaps at some later time : that of Jesus with his own 
brother, James (1 Cor. 15:7). We know that before his 
death Christ's own brothers had not believed that his Messianic 
claims were well founded, or, more probably, had believed in 
his Messiahship but had not agreed with him as to his methods 
and conduct, or as to the nature of the Messiahship (John 
7 : 3-5) . We know that afterwards James was the head of the 
Jerusalem Church, and there can be little room for doubt that 
this private interview with his Risen Brother and Lord was the 
turning point in this young man's life. 

It was in the afternoon of Easter Sunday that two men from 
the circle of Christ's disciples, though not of his Apostles, set 
out from Jerusalem to go to the home of one of them in a 
village called Emmaus, probably about eight miles to the north- 
west among the hills. The name of the one was Cleopas ; the 
name of the other is not given, and there is no ground for 
supposing it to be Luke, except that he alone gives an account 
of the incident (but comp. Mark 16 : 12, 13). 

205 



206 The Life of the Lord Jesus, 

Only one thought was in their hearts, only one subject could 
occupy their tongues. The deep discouragment into which the 
arrest and crucifixion of Jesus had plunged them was only 
intensified by the bewildering reports of the morning, which 
must have been whispered about in much secrecy for fear of 
the Jews (see John 20: 19). As now they sorrowfully talked 
over these things a stranger joined them, and soon with mar- 
vellous tact drew from them an account of their hopes and their 
grief. We trusted that it was he that should redeem Israel, 
they said, and told of the reports of visions of angels and 
rumors that he was alive, though as yet, so far as they knew, 
he had not been seen. 

Then the stranger, pointing out that the suffering and death 
of the Messiah had long ago been announced by the prophets, 
went through the Scriptures, bringing out all the prophecies 
relating to him. As they drew near their destination, they 
could not bring themselves to part with this wonderful new 
friend. Their hearts were burning within them as he thus 
opened to them the Scriptures ; they ardently craved a fuller 
measure of the marvellous light he was pouring upon them. 
They urged him to go in and sup with them ; and as he blessed 
and broke the bread they recognized him ; it was the Lord ! 
And he vanished out of their sight. 

Leaving their meal untouched they hastened back to Jerusa- 
lem, and there were met with the glad news. The Lord is risen 
and hath appeared unto Simon ! And while they were telling 
the disciples of their own wonderful experiences, Jesus sud- 
denly stood among them and said, Peace he unto you! 

At first they were terrified, thinking it was a spirit, for the 
doors had been shut as a measure of precaution, and by what 
means he had come into their midst they knew not. To reas- 
sure them he asked for food and ate it in their sight, thus 
proving to them that whatever mysterious change might have 
passed upon his body, it was still a true body and not a mere 
apparition. Having thus fully put their hearts at ease, he 



The Resurrection I^vening^ and Doubting Thomas. 207 

opened their minds that they might understand the Scriptures 
not, indeed, by that gift of the Holy Spirit which he had 
promised them, and which could not come while he was still with 
them, but probably by giving them that clue to their interpreta- 
tion which was to be found in his own life and death and 
resurrection, showing them that all that had happened had 
been in the plan of God from the first. 

Thomas, the Twin (Didymus), was not with the other Apos- 
tles that Easter evening, and when afterward they told him of 
this interview, he could not believe that they had not been 
mistaken in thinking that they had actually seen the Lord in 
the body. Nothing would convince him that it had not been 
a spectral manifestation, except to put his finger in the print 
of the nails and his hand into the wound in the side of Jesus. 
It is a strong testimony to the reality of the Christian brother- 
hood among the disciples that this doubt of Thomas did not 
weaken the bond between him and the others. It is difficult 
to conceive what doctrinal error could be more divisive than a 
doubt as to the resurrection of the Lord ; and if such a doubt 
was not a reason for casting Thomas out of Christian fellow- 
ship, it seems hard to believe that any smaller difference of 
opinion can justify the step of casting out one who loves the 
Lord and lives in evident fellowship with him. 

The reward of their tolerance came to them the next Sunday 
evening, when the whole number of the Apostles, including 
Thomas, being present and the doors again shut, Jesus once 
more came to them with the salutation. Peace he unto you! 
Then turning to Thomas with a gentleness which made his 
words the more severe rebuke of his want of faith, he bade him 
make the test which he himself had insisted on — to touch the 
wounds that had been made upon the cross, and he not faith- 
less hut helieving. And Thomas, no longer doubting, but with 
all the power of his strong, though despondent nature (comp. 
John 11 : 16), aroused to adoring faith, fell down before him 
with the rapturous confession, My Lord and my God! 



208 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

Yes, it was rapture to be fully persuaded by the witness of 
eye and touch that his Lord was indeed arisen, but there are 
those more blessed still — even all those who have since 
believed in him, through the disciples' word (John 17:20). 
Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed, the Lord said to 
Thomas ; blessed are they who have not seen arid have believed. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE GALILEA.N APPEARANCES, AND THE ASCENSION. 

Matt. 28 : 16-20 ; Mark 16 : 15-20 ; Luke 24 : 44-53 ; John 20 : 30 — 

21 : 25. 

THE first message of the risen Saviour to his disciples had 
been that they should meet him in Galilee. The feast 
of the Passover being fully over with that Octave of Easter 
Sunday on which Jesus had convinced Thomas of the reality of 
his resurrection (see last Chapter), they doubtless all returned 
thither and resumed the ordinary work which for the past year 
they had laid aside, waiting for a sign from Jesus as to the 
place and time of the expected meeting. Thus seven of the 
disciples (John 21 : 2) had spent a night upon the lake in 
fruitless toil, when at daybreak they saw one standing upon 
the shore. They did not recognize him, not because of any- 
thing unreal in his appearance, but because it was not yet 
daylight. They followed, however, his injunction to cast the 
net on the right side of the boat, because they believed him 
to be a well disposed person, who from his position could see 
better than they some indication of a school of fish approach- 
ing on that side. The enormous catch brought at once to 
John's mind the event which had been the turning point of his 
life (Luke 5 : 4-11), and he exclaimed, " It is the Lord ! " 

At the words the impetuous Peter, girding his coat about 
him, plunged into the sea and hastened to join the Master he 
so much loved. The other disciples followed, drawing their net 
with them, the short distance (John 21 :8), making it possible 
for them to do so without the delay needed to empty the net 
into the boat. Arrived at the shore, they found that a fire had 
already been kindled (there is no reason for not conjecturing 

209 



210 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

that Peter had done this at the Lord's command), and prepara- 
tions made for a morning meal. 

It must have seemed like the dear, familiar intercourse of 
the old days, though with a new meaning. Something of awe 
they must have felt ; none of the disciples dared to ask 
concerning the nature of the Lord's resurrection body. But 
no doubt of its reality disturbed their communion, and there- 
fore the Lord ate, not only before them, as when he was 
obliged thus to dispel their doubt (Luke 24:41-43), but with 
them, perfect communion being made possible by unquestioning 
faith. They knew that a mysterious change had passed upon 
their Lord, but it was still verily he who sat among them and 
broke bread with them and ate of the fish which his own 
power had provided. And they knew that they, too, were 
changed since those past Galilean days. Surely not one of 
them, least of all Peter, could ever be again what they had 
been since the awful da3^s of their Lord's betrayal and their 
own faithlessness and his death and return to them from 
the grave. 

This third time lohen Jesus was manifested to the disciples as 
a representative body (his seventh or eighth appearance to one 
or more persons) , was the proper time to reinstate the repent- 
ant, forgiven Peter to the place which had before been given 
to him (Matt. 16 : 18, 19) in the band who were to bear the 
Lord's commission to carry the G-ospel to the world. By the 
thrice-repeated question, Lovest thou me? the Lord gently 
reminded him of his threefold denial ; and Peter, grieved, not 
by that reniembrance, but by the implication that doubt of his 
love still remained in the mind to the Lord who had forgiven 
him, appealed to his Master's perfect knowledge of the human 
heart : Thou knowest that I love thee ! With each reply to the 
question Jesus had charged hXm^ Feed my lambs, Feed my 
sheep, commissioning him to carry on his Master's work in the 
world. And to Peter's appeal to his knowledge of his dis- 
ciple's heart, he answered giving proof that he believed that 



The G-alilean Appear ayices^ and the Ascension. 211 

upon his love he might rely for service unto death — even 
unto the same bitter and shameful death by which he himself 
had perfected his one offering for sin : in the words which 
reinstated Peter in his public t?:ust, the Lord uttered a prophecy 
of the death by which he was to glorify God (John 21 : 18, 19). 

After uttering this prophecy, which, perhaps, the other 
disciples and even Peter imperfectly understood, Jesus turned 
away, saying. Follow me. Peter obeyed, but seeing that John 
was also following, he asked concerning his future. Whatever 
may have been the motive of the question, Jesus recalled 
Peter to the fact that he had but one thing to concern himself 
with, and that was the work his Lord had given him to do 
(vs. 22). The disciples took this reply to mean that John 
should live until the Lord's second coming, but in this they 
misapprehended their Lord's meaning. John himself, who 
alone of the evangelists relates the incident, takes especial 
pains to correct this misapprehension, which had evidently 
become general in the early Church, the more so that John 
lived to extreme old age. 

Perhaps it was at this time that Jesus made an appointment 
to meet all who believed on him at a certain place, and com- 
missioned the seven here present to make the appointment 
known. Matthew (28 : 16-20) indeed mentions only that the 
eleven Apostles were present at this next meeting, but St. Paul 
says that there were five hundred brethren present (1 Cor. 15:6), 
appealing to the testimony of many of them, who were still 
alive when he wrote (a.d. 57 or 58), as to the reality of 
Christ's resurrection. 

The place of this great meeting is not definitely mentioned ; 
it was a mountain., and it was doubtless in a somewhat central 
and accessible part of Galilee. There is no reason why the 
common conjecture should not be correct, that it was the place 
of the Sermon on the Mount. There, not to the eleven alone, 
but to the whole Church, he gave his last commission. Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation; 



212 The Life of the Lord Jesus. 

with the promise which made the task possible, Xo, I am with 
you alway., even unto the end of the world. 

Again in obedience to the command of Jesus, the eleven 
met in Jerusalem, as the feast of Pentecost was drawing nigh. 
There, coming to theai probably in that " upper room " where they 
had eaten the Last Supper (comp. Luke 24 : 50 and Acts 1 : 13) , 
he opened their minds to understand the Scripture, charging 
them to tarry in the city until they had received his promise — 
the promise of the Father (Luke 24: 49, comp. Acts 1:4, 5), 
the endowment with power from on high. 

And then he led them out of the city to the Mount of Olives, 
that mount whose paths he had so often traversed in going to 
his Judaean home in Bethany (Mark 11 : 11), the mount where 
he had often enjoyed quiet converse with his disciples (John 
18:2), where, perhaps, he had sometimes passed the night 
(Luke 21:37), where he had heard the acclamations of the 
multitude (19 : 37), where he had wept over Jerusalem (vs. 41), 
where he had agonized in the garden (22:41-44), where he 
had been betrayed by the kiss of one he had loved, his own 
familiar friend (vs. 48). There, when they had come over 
against Bethany (24 : 50) , he lifted up his hands and blessed 
them. And while he blessed them he was parted from them, 
being carried upward toward heaven (vs. 51, comp. Acts 1:9), 
until a cloud hid him from their sight. And while they stood 
still gazing in awe that was almost rapture, two angels stood by 
them, telling them that they should one day so see him return 
again from heaven as he was now gone into heaven (vss. 
10, 11). 

The question has often been raised. What manner of body 
was that which our Lord had on rising from the dead, which 
could go into heaven and return again from heaven? The 
progress of science since the days when the Bible was written 
has given us a new idea of locality and of what lies beyond 
our vision in the far distances. We know that in the universe 
there is no up and dovm as we understand it — that the celestial 



The G-alilean Appearances^ and the Ascension. 213 

world has none of the limitations of earth, and bears no such 
relation to it as is indicated in such words as above and below. 
But because it is a spiritual locality — because, that is, we have 
no words in which to describe it — is not to say that it does not 
exist, and so of Christ's spiritual body ; we who are yet mate- 
rial have no experience which enables us to understand or 
describe the glorified jDody which is fitted for the spiritual life ; 
and such was the body of Jesus after the resurrection. But 
we know that it was a real body, palpable to the senses, though 
with powers and qualities which we cannot understand or 
account for. It is the most stupid Philistinism to question 
that there are things in heaven as well as on earth undreamed 
of in our philosophy ; there are laws divinely appointed that 
have not been incorporated into any system of physics yet 
known to us, and which, in all probability, can never be incor- 
porated into any physical system. But we must remember that 
it is the things that can be so comprehended by us that are the 
transitory, the temporal ; while it is the things unseen, that is, 
unknowable by our physical senses, that are the real and the 
eternal. We know that the body in which our Lord appeared 
after his resurrection is the same in which he shall again 
appear, the pattern of the body with which we, too, shall be 
clothed upon, for we are to be like him (1 John 3:2). 

THE END. 



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